Highlights

• West African nation of Guinea was officially declared free of the most serious Ebola outbreak in history on December 28th
• The epidemic caused the collapse of Guinea’s national health system and has dramatically impacted the livelihoods of the population
• The country reported a total of 3,807 cases of Ebola infection, including 2,536 deaths
• Guinea must remain vigilant to prevent future outbreaks, and must now focus on assisting people facing food insecurity – approximately two million citizens

This time last year, the world watched in disbelief as the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone succumbed to the world’s worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. In two years’ time, more than 29,000 people in the region contracted Ebola, and 11,300 of them lost their lives to the highly contagious disease.

But two years after that first case, Guinea is now celebrating some long-coming good news: the nation has been declared Ebola free. The last patient hospitalized for Ebola in Guinea was a baby girl whose mother died from Ebola after giving birth to her. On November 16th, 2015, this little girl, at two months of age, was determined to be cured. She’s just now finished the 42-day waiting period used as a threshold by the World Health Organization (WHO) to officially mark the end of the nation’s outbreak.

Guinea joins neighboring Sierra Leone in becoming Ebola free; the latter earned that distinction in November. Only Liberia now carries the burden of managing active Ebola cases – after initially being declared Ebola free in May last year, new cases presented. A second Ebola-free classification came in September, before three new cases emerged.

The Ebola-free designation is heartening news for Guinea, which, all told, faced 3,807 cases of Ebola and lost 2,536 people to the disease. But the setback of neighboring Liberia is an important reminder that vigilance against the deadly disease must not be lessened now. It is imperative that government health authorities, the international community, and the population at large remain alert to prevent further outbreaks and, if an outbreak occurs, to ensure a timely, coordinated response to prevent further fatalities.

“We can’t rule out a possible recurrence of the virus, per the example of new cases appearing in Liberia in November, after the country was declared Ebola free,” said Anika Krstic, Action Against Hunger’s Country Director in Guinea. “There is still no cure, no vaccine that can eradicate Ebola one hundred percent,” she said. “So far the most effective interventions are prevention, good hygiene, containment devices, and basic treatments.”

Country still in a critical situation

Guinea is entering the recovery phase, which involves a complex combination of rebuilding and strengthening the national health system, facilitating the population’s access to clean water, providing for the protection of their health, and promoting their livelihoods to enable food security.

Ebola caused the country’s health infrastructure, already fragile before the start of the epidemic, to collapse. Fear of contagion led people to avoid health centers, which has resulted in the spread of other dangerous infectious diseases, like malaria and measles. Between 2013 and 2014, medical appointments have reportedly decreased by 58 percent, hospitalizations by 54 percent, and vaccinations by 30 percent.

The crisis has also greatly reduced people’s mobility, thereby limiting economic opportunities for families and, consequently, their access to the resources they require to meet basic needs.

According to the World Food Programme’s latest survey in June 2015, about 1.9 million people suffer from food insecurity in Guinea – for 59,000 people, that lack of access to food is severe.

“We are really concerned about the prevalence of chronic malnutrition, which affects 25.9 percent of the population in Guinea,” said Krstic, citing a SMART Survey from 2015. “Our experts fear the situation will worsen in 2016.”

Committed to the cause

Action Against Hunger has worked in Guinea since 1995, facilitating and ensuring access to water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions, and promoting nutrition and food security. In 2014, we launched a series of interventions designed to combat the Ebola epidemic by reducing the risk of contamination in communities. This involved awareness-building, detection and case finding, and the development of individual and collective measures of protection. We also partnered with health centers to improve their protective measures. We provided them with disinfection and cleaning kits, distributed personal protective equipment kits, and trained health personnel. We have also worked closely with the Guinea's health authorities to manage their response to the epidemic.

Currently, we are working in Guinea to strengthen the resilience of Ebola survivors and communities affected by the epidemic, giving them support to rebuild their lives. We will stay in Guinea – and indeed, the whole region – to ensure the recovery and rehabilitation of the most vulnerable.