The World Health Organisation (WHO) is alarmed by the fresh reports of Ebola deaths and is thus preparing mitigation plans to combat the virus, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said on Sunday.

Ms. Moeti, on her personal twitter account @MoetiTshidi, was reacting to the report by the Guinea’s Ministry of Health on the resurgence of Ebola in the country.

The Guinea’s health department had reported that four people died of Ebola in a resurgence of the disease that first emerged five years ago.

“WHO is ramping up readiness and response efforts to this potential resurgence of Ebola in West Africa, a region which suffered so much from Ebola in 2014,’’ Ms. Moeti said.

Similarly, on February 7, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recorded a fresh case of Ebola in the North Kivu province of the country.

WHO stated that DRC announced that a new case of Ebola had been detected in Butembo, a city in North Kivu Province, where a previous outbreak was declared in June 2020.

“The Butembo branch of the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) confirmed Ebola in samples taken from a patient with Ebola-like symptoms who had sought treatment at a local health centre.

“The woman was the wife of an Ebola survivor. She has since died,’’ WHO said.

The health agency said it viewed each fresh emergence of Ebola since 2016 with extreme concern, treating the most recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a global health emergency.

(NAN)