Guinea Confirms Ebola Flare-Up; Five Deaths Confirmed, Hundreds Quarantined

Mohamed Belhocine (C), a representative from World Health Organization (WHO), at a press briefing in Conakry City, Guinea, on Dec. 29, 2015. Guinea has been declared free from transmission of Ebola, WHO said Tuesday, marking a milestone for the West African country where the original Ebola chain of transmission began two years ago leading to the largest epidemic in history. (AP Photo/Youssouf Bah)

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• Ebola Could Be Spread by Victims Even a Week After Death

On March 18, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a “team of specialists“ to the Nzérékoré Prefecture, where four of the recent cases have been reported. The latest case, however, was reported in the Macenta Prefecture, about 200 kilometers (around 125 miles) from the Nzérékoré cases.

Coincidentally, WHO released a statement on March 17 declaring the end of a flare-up of the virus in Guinea’s neighboring Sierra Leone. 

A man gets vaccinated against the Ebola virus at a health center in Conakry, Guinea on March 10, 2015. (CELLOU BINANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Guinean authorities have placed over 800 individuals who came in contact with those recently infected under medical observation—“Their movements to and from the area will be restricted while they are under medical observation” said WHO. 

Unlike at the beginning of the 2014 epidemic, medical teams have a weapon they previously did not possess: the Ebola vaccine. WHO notes that “contacts and contacts of contacts” of the recently infected will receive the vaccine.

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• Lessons From the Ebola Epidemic

The original outbreak in Guinea was declared over on Dec. 29, 2015; these are the first reported cases of the virus in Guinea since the declaration.