Yahoo – AFP, Mouctar Bah with Ben Simon in Geneva, December 29, 2015
Conakry (AFP) - The UN's health agency on Tuesday declared Guinea's Ebola outbreak over two years after it emerged, spreading death across west Africa and pushing the region's worst-hit communities to the brink of collapse.
A health official works at the Ebola treatment centre run by the French red cross society in Macenta, Guinea on November 20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard) |
Conakry (AFP) - The UN's health agency on Tuesday declared Guinea's Ebola outbreak over two years after it emerged, spreading death across west Africa and pushing the region's worst-hit communities to the brink of collapse.
One of the
poorest nations in the world, the former French colony was the host for
"patient zero" -- an infant who became the first victim -- and health
authorities went on to record some 2,500 deaths.
"The
epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea is over," Mohamed Belhoucine,
the World Health Organization's local representative, announced in the capital
Conakry.
The fever
spread stealthily and terrifyingly from December 2013, striking two
neighbouring countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with sporadic cases also in
Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.
People
gather for a concert to celebrate
Guinea reaching the final stages of the
battle with the Ebola epidemic on
September 26, 2015 in Conakry
(AFP
Photo/Cellou Binani)
|
Around
11,300 people died out of almost 29,000 recorded cases, according to a WHO
tally that many experts believe greatly understates the real impact of the
outbreak.
Paying
tribute to Guineans for "standing their ground and fighting with
courage", Belhoucine also acknowledged the international community's help
in battling the outbreak.
"At
the peak of the epidemic... the country recorded hundreds of cases per week.
The social fabric was severely tested," he said.
The last
known case in Guinea was a three-month-old named Nubia, who was born with the
disease but whose recovery was confirmed on November 16.
That
triggered the countdown to the announcement, as a period of 42 days -- twice
the virus's maximum incubation period -- is required to declare a country free
of transmission.
'Au
revoir, Ebola'
The WHO
declared Sierra Leone' epidemic over on November 7, while Liberia discharged
its last known Ebola cases on December 3.
President
Alpha Conde is expected at an celebration in Conakry on Wednesday, flanked by
representatives from donor countries and dozens of organisations involved in
the recovery, from Doctors without Borders to the Red Cross.
Guests will
pay tribute to the 115 health workers who died fighting Ebola and eight members
of an Ebola awareness team killed by hostile locals in Guinea's forested
southeast.
A range of
top African musicians, including Youssou N'Dour and Mory Kante, will take to
the stage for a "memorial" concert -- entitled "Bye-bye, au
revoir Ebola" in the francophone country.
Amid the
jubilation and hope for a return to normality, experts have sounded a note of
caution, as the virus has been shown to persist in the sperm and other body
fluids of survivors significantly longer than previously thought.
Shattered
economies
Liberia was
declared free of human-to-human transmission in May and again in September, but
both times the fever resurfaced in small clusters.
"We
have to be very careful because, even if open transmission has been stopped,
the disease has not been totally defeated," said Alpha Seny Souhmah, a
Guinean health technician and Ebola survivor.
The WHO
said in a statement from Geneva that Guinea had entered a 90-day period of
"heightened surveillance" to ensure any new cases are identified
quickly before they could spread.
Guineans
battling Ebola have been faced with huge obstacles, not least the country's grinding
poverty and a crumbling medical infrastructure.
Frontline
workers have also had to combat the rumour mill, entrenched denial, fear of
Ebola stigma and resistance to confinement measures deemed authoritarian or
unreasonable.
They also
had to persuade people to abandon funeral traditions whereby mourners touch the
body of their loved one -- a potent pathway to infection.
The
epidemic devastated the economies of the worst-hit countries, as crops rotted
in the fields, mines were abandoned and goods could not get to market.
Strong
recent growth has been curtailed in Guinea and while Liberia has resumed
growth, Sierra Leone is facing a severe recession, according to the World Bank,
which has mobilised $1.62 billion for Ebola response and recovery efforts.
The bank's
group president Jim Yong Kim called for continued support for Guinea and its
neighbours, vowing to "do everything we can to help these countries and
the world prevent another deadly pandemic".
Guinea Ebola outbreak over, WHO declares, two years after it emerged https://t.co/UOAxqVvXEX pic.twitter.com/hNod6DG2hH
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 29, 2015
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