Ebola News: Guinea Outbreak Declared Over After Just 4 Months

The Republic of Guinea and the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced the end of the Ebola outbreak in N'Zérékoré Prefecture. Lessons from a previous outbreak helped end this one in just four months.

The outbreak in Guinea was first announced on Feb. 14, the WHO said in a statement. The first cases were detected in the rural community of Gouécké in southern N'Zérékoré prefecture, where the 2014-2016 outbreak also first emerged before spreading to its neighboring locations. At the time, the deadly outbreak killed 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The outbreak that just ended is said to be the first resurgence of the Ebola virus in the country since the 2014-2016 outbreak. By the end of the latest outbreak, there were a total of 16 confirmed cases and seven probable ones. Among the patients, 11 survived while 12 lost their lives.

"Although this Ebola outbreak flared up in the same area as the West Africa one which killed 11,000 people, thanks to new innovations and lessons learned, Guinea managed to contain the virus in four months," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, said in a statement. "We are getting faster, better and smarter at fighting Ebola. But while this outbreak is over, we must stay alert for a possible resurgence and ensure the expertise in Ebola expands to other health threats such as COVID-19."

In a tweet, Dr. Moeti also shared his heartfelt congratulations to the government and the people of Guinea for ending the outbreak.

Part of the WHO's efforts was to help ship 24,000 Ebola vaccines and inoculate about 11,000 high-risk people, including 2,800 frontline workers. It is also continuing surveillance to detect any possible resurgence of the disease.

In a statement, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) celebrated the announcement of the end of the outbreak.

"I commend the government and first responders in Guinea for ending the country's Ebola outbreak," CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH said. "Our heartfelt sympathies are with the people who lost loved ones to this disease. CDC remains committed to supporting survivor programs and helping strengthen global preparedness and response capacities that can prevent or extinguish future Ebola outbreaks."

The agency also stressed the need for further research to better understand the disease. For instance, there has been evidence that the latest outbreak stemmed from a survivor of the Ebola outbreak from 2014-2016.

"Transmission of the virus by a survivor more than five years after recovery demonstrates the need for research to better understand persistent Ebola virus infection and highlights the necessity for strong and ongoing survivor programs," the CDC said.

The end of the Guinea Ebola outbreak also came just about a month after the DRC declared the end of its own Ebola outbreak.