Guinea confirms two new Ebola cases months after all-clear
Two bodies have tested positive for Ebola in Guinea, the government said, months after the outbreak was declared over in the West African country and hours after Sierra Leone announced the end of a recent flare-up.
The cases emerged from the same family in Koropara, in the N'Zerekore prefecture, about 600 miles south east of Guinea's capital, Conakry, said Ibrahima Sylla, a spokesman for the national effort against Ebola.
Mr Sylla said there are three other probable cases, and health authorities are taking appropriate measures to contain the spread.
An emergency meeting will be held with the Ministry of Health, said Sakoba Keita, the national co-ordinator of the fight against Ebola.
The deputy director general of the N'Zerekore Regional Hospital, Zoba Guilavogui, had earlier said a man and woman from the same family died of an illness like Ebola, but tests were pending.
Guinea was declared free from Ebola on December 29. It would be celebrating the end of its 90-day heightened surveillance period at the end of March.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The World Health Organisation declared the outbreak over on January 14 when Liberia became the last of the three countries to have ended transmissions. The next day, however, a corpse tested positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone, which saw a flare-up of another case.
The WHO and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation announced the end of that Ebola flare-up on Thursday. The declaration came 42 days - two 21-day incubation cycles of the virus - since the last confirmed Ebola patient tested negative for a second time.
Despite gains, experts warn flare-ups are likely.
