BFF-33 Liberia on heightened alert after Guinea Ebola deaths

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LIBERIA-GUINEA-HEALTH-EBOLA

Liberia on heightened alert after Guinea Ebola deaths

MONROVIA, Feb 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Liberian President George Weah on Sunday
put the country’s health authorities on heightened alert after four people
died of Ebola in neighbouring Guinea, the first resurgence of the disease in
five years.

Weah “has mandated the Liberian health authorities and related
stakeholders in the sector to heighten the country’s surveillance and
preventative activities in the wake of reports of the emergence of the deadly
Ebola virus disease in neighbouring Guinea,” his office said in a statement.

Guinea’s Health Minister Remy Lamah told AFP on Saturday that four people
had died of Ebola, the first deaths since a 2013-2016 epidemic — which began
in Guinea — killed 11,300 people across the region.

According to Weah’s statement on Sunday, the new deaths occurred in
Guinean town of Gouecke close to Liberia’s northeastern border.

“However, no case of the disease has so far been detected in” Liberia, it
insisted.

“The president’s instruction is intended to ensure Liberia acts
proactively to avoid any epidemic situation, the kind Liberia witnessed in
2014.”

Weah also instructed the health authorities “to immediately engage
communities in towns and villages bordering Guinea and increase anti-Ebola
measures,” the statement continued.

“While the health authorities are urged to increase their alert level, the
general public is assured that there is no case of Ebola in Liberia and that
the government is undertaking all measures to ensure that the public remains
safe from the deadly virus.”

BSS/AFP/SSS/1953 hrs