WHO declares end to second Ebola outbreak in Guinea

The second outbreak, which was announced in February, killed at least 12 people.

An Ebola outbreak which started in Guinea in February, infecting 16 people and killing 12, has been declared over, the West African country’s health ministry and the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

“I have the honour of declaring the end of Ebola” in Guinea, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo said at a ceremony in the southeastern Nzerekore region where the disease surfaced earlier this year.

Health Minister, Remy Lamah added: “In the name of the head of state (President Alpha Conde) I wish to declare the end of resurgence of Ebola in Guinea.”

Health authorities were able to move swiftly to tackle the resurgence of the virus after lessons learned from previous outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Based on the lessons learned from the 2014–16 outbreak and through rapid, coordinated response efforts … Guinea managed to control the outbreak and prevent its spread beyond its borders.” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

In February, Guinea launched a vaccination drive to halt the spread of the disease.

The Ebola outbreak in 2014-2016 killed 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for Ebola patients are most at risk.

Olawunmi Sadiq/Aljazeera