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 The worst Ebola epidemic on record has killed more than 11,000
people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea over the last year and a
half. Liberia became Ebola-free in May, but neighboring Sierra Leone
and Guinea are still struggling to get to zero cases despite
hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
According to a health ministry document seen by Reuters on
Wednesday, the quarantine will apply to Sikhourou Koloteya in the
Forecariah prefecture southeast of the capital Conakry along with
Tanéné and Bamba in Dubreka prefecture.
The village of Tamarasy in the Boké mining region will also be
subject to the new measures.
"In practice, a hooping system will be organized resulting in a ban
on movement by inhabitants in the affected locations," the document
stated.
Twenty-one days is the standard observation period for an individual
believed to have come in contact with an Ebola-infected person.
Health officials will also carry out intensive door-to-door visits
to homes in the quarantined areas to try to identify cases of the
disease.
"We have already started to apply the new measures today in
Forecariah. The other locations will follow from tomorrow,"
Fodé Tass Sylla, spokesman for Guinea's Ebola coordination unit,
told Reuters.
Forecariah, Dubreka and Boké account for the bulk of new Ebola
infections in Guinea over the past three weeks, according to a
situation report issued by the World Health Organization on
Wednesday.
"The area of active transmission within those prefectures has
changed, and in several instances has expanded," the report stated.
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Cases have also been recorded in neighboring Sierra Leone's capital
Freetown following several weeks without new infections, officials
said on Monday, dashing hopes that the city had vanquished the
outbreak there.
A health official said on Wednesday there were concerns that
exposure to the disease there may have been greater than initially
thought after a pregnant woman treated at a Freetown hospital later
tested positive for Ebola.
"Some 31 members of staff came into contact with this lady, but we
haven't managed to track all of them down," the source said. "When
you think of all the contacts they'll have made when they go home,
it's scary."
(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Additional reporting by Misha Hussain in
Freetown; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
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