Ebola kills more than 200 in Guinea

More than 200 people have died from the Ebola virus in Guinea in one of the worst-ever outbreaks of the disease, the World Health Organisation has said. 

The UN’s health agency said on Wednesday it had registered 328 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in the country, including 208 deaths, with 21 deaths registered between May 29 and June 1 alone.

Neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia have also reported more infections, said the WHO, which has described West Africa’s first outbreak as one of the most challenging it has faced.

To date, 79 confirmed and suspected cases have been reported in Sierra Leone, the agency said. Six people have died of the disease.

The disease appeared to have resurfaced in Liberia, which had not recorded a new case for two months. A person believed to have been infected in Kailahun in Sierra Leone came across the border and died in Foya, the WHO said.

The body was taken back to Kailahun to be buried, it added.

Live Box 2014529134439622746

Sierra Leone has restricted travel in some areas, and reaffirmed an earlier ban on trips to funerals in neighbouring Guinea in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.

The virus is one of the world’s most deadly. It was first identified in 1976 in what is now a the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an outbreak which killed 280.