West Africa faces its first known Ebola resurgence for five years

West Africa faced its first known Ebola resurgence since the end of a devastating outbreak in 2016 on Sunday, with Guinea responding to what its health chief called an “epidemic” after seven cases were confirmed, AFP reported.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic stretching health resources across the world, Guinea and the World Health Organization (WHO) say they are better prepared to deal with Ebola now than they were five years ago because of good progress on vaccines.

According to AFP, the WHO said it would rush assistance to Guinea and seek to ensure it received adequate inoculations, as neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone went on high alert as a precaution.

“Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Guinea health chief Sakoba Keita was quoted as saying by AFP after an emergency meeting in the capital.

Health Minister Remy Lamah had earlier spoken of four deaths and it was not immediately clear why the new toll was lower, AFP reported.

The cases marked the first known resurgence of Ebola in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,300 people, the worst involving the virus on record.

That epidemic also began in Guinea in the same southeastern region where the new cases have been found.

The virus, believed to reside in bats, was first identified in 1976 in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.