Guinea continues fight against Ebola with mass vaccinations

Guinea is continuing its fight against the deadly Ebola disease with its mass vaccination campaign that started on Tuesday.

It comes after the latest outbreak this month which killed five people in the southeastern region of Nzérékoré.

They were the first cases in Guinea since the 2013-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,300 in West Africa.

The World Health Organization has sent 11,000 vaccines to Guinea this week and plans to send 8,000 more.

"Here we vaccinate contacts first, since the pathology was discovered in this hospital, we are now vaccinating contacts first," said Dr Kaba Keita, general director of the regional hospital of Nzérékoré.

"And in a second stage, we are going to extend the vaccination to all the hospital staff since they are on the front line in the fight against this pathology."

The vaccination campaign also began in Dubreka on the outskirts of the capital Conakry, said Dr Halimatou Keita, who works in a hospital there.

On Wednesday, the rollout will continue in Nzerekore, located around 40 kilometres from Gouecke.

A total of 385 people have been identified as contacts linked to the initial case and that person's relatives, said Bouna Yattassaye, deputy director of the National Agency for Health Security.

No new cases have been reported in Guinea for a week.

But infections and Ebola deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month.