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 About two dozen new suspected and confirmed Ebola cases were
recorded in the past two weeks, taking the total number to 53 as of
Friday, Fode Tass Sylla, a spokesman for Guinea's anti-Ebola task
force, said.
Sylla said the increase was expected because health authorities were
only now gaining access to faraway villages where inhabitants had
previously prevented them from entering.
"This increase in new case numbers is because we are now able to get
to villages where we are discovering hidden sick cases," he said.
The new cases highlights difficulties authorities in the three
worst-hit West African states -- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia --
face in trying to curb the spread of the epidemic that has killed
nearly 9,000 people.
Thought to be declining at the start of 2015, the number of new
Ebola cases rose in all three countries for the first time this year
in the past week, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
Some 36 villages in the south and western forest region of Guinea,
where the first case of Ebola was recorded, had previously been
inaccessible to health officials because villagers sometimes used
violence to stop health workers.
"Even in Conakry (Guinea's coastal capital), there are some
neighborhoods such as Ratoma where we had the same kind of
situation," Sylla said.
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Guinea's government on January 10, set a 60-day target to completely
eradicate the disease in the nation, a gold, iron ore and bauxite
producer but where nearly 60 percent of the population live below
the poverty line.
However, there are doubts this could be achieved due to high levels
of mistrust of health authorities, the practice of traditional
rituals such as burials, and general misinformation about the
disease.
(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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