Ebola vaccination campaign launched in Middle Guinea

Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - A vaccination campaign against the Ebola virus began here Thursday in the prefecture of Labe, central Guinea, where the first case of the disease was recently detected in a local resident, PANA learnt on Saturday from a source close to the office of the World Health Organization (WHO).

A resident of the Labe prefecture, who recently left her place of residence for Côte d'Ivoire, tested positive on arrival in the country, where health authorities said since 1983 no case of Ebola had been diagnosed.

The vaccination campaign started in Labé with persons who had direct contacts with the infected woman, health personnel and all citizens.

The health authorities, who said that the relatives of the woman infected with the Ebola virus, as well as several passengers who boarded the same vehicle to go to Côte d'Ivoire were found and put in isolation, urging everyone to accept to be vaccinated to prevent the disease from spreading.

The same sources pointed out that 49 contacts found in Labé were under observation but had not yet shown signs of the disease.

In 2013 and 2021, several cases of Ebola virus were detected in localities of Forest Guinea (south), about 1,000 km from the capital, Conakry, where in early June, WHO, UNICEF and the government announced the end of the epidemic that has killed a dozen people.

The Guinean health authorities questioned on Thursday the diagnosis made by Côte d'Ivoire on the woman from Labé, 1,500 km away from Côte d'Ivoire, where she is currently residing.

In exchanges with their Guinean counterparts, Ivorian experts confirmed that the samples taken from the woman at the Pasteur Institute in Abidjan indicated that she was infected with the Ebola virus.

The Guinean government has offered Côte d'Ivoire 5,000 doses of vaccine and a Guinean medical team has been sent to Abidjan where vaccinations have also begun.

-0- PANA AC/JSG/BBA/RA  21Aug2021