A picture taken on June 28, 2014 shows a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) putting on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, where people infected with the Ebola virus are being treated. The World Health Organization has warned that Ebola could spread beyond hard-hit Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to neighbouring nations, but insisted that travel bans were not the answer. To date, there have been 635 cases of haemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, most confirmed as Ebola. A total of 399 people have died, 280 of them in Guinea. AFP PHOTO / CELLOU BINANI
Conakry – Guinean Health Minister, Remy Lamah has said the number of confirmed Ebola cases in Guinea has reached 286 out of which 182 people have died.
The number of Ebola cases has been increasing in spite of efforts by the government and its health partners such as the World Health Organisation and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
So far MSF has disbursed 3 million dollars to help in the fight against Ebola in Guinea and in some other treatment centres created in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
“We must organise and mobilise more resources to fight against this disease which has caused many deaths in the affected countries,’’ Marc Poncin, MSF’s national emergency coordinator said.
The head of disease prevention unit in Guinea’s health ministry, Sakoba Keita said that 27 health workers had been affected by Ebola and 20 of them had died from the disease.
“This is why transportation and handling of bodies of Ebola victims is now exclusively being done by special Red Cross teams that have been well trained.
To sensitise the population about the disease, government has funded about 15 nongovernmental organisations to develop communication strategies.
“Also by moving from door-to-door advising the population on how to prevent themselves against the disease,’’ Keita said.
Xinhua/NAN