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In Guinea, West Africa, the health authorities speak of an "epidemic" after several confirmed Ebola cases.

The laboratory in Conakry had "confirmed the existence of the Ebola virus," said the head of the national health authority, Sakoba Keïta, on Sunday after an emergency meeting.

There are seven confirmed cases, including three fatal.

It was initially unclear whether the cases were related to one another.

Health Minister Rémy Lamah had spoken of four Ebola deaths the day before.

The first Ebola deaths since 2016 have occurred in the Nzérékoré region in the southeast of the country, Lamah told the AFP news agency.

"We are very concerned."

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The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, also expressed concern on Twitter on Sunday.

Moeti announced that WHO would step up its measures against a possible resurgence of the epidemic.

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During the worst Ebola epidemic to date, which broke out in 2014, around 28,000 people fell ill and 11,300 people died.

In addition to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were particularly affected at the time.

The Ebola virus was first registered in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976 and is named after a river there.

Those affected suffer from fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, internal bleeding and, ultimately, organ failure.

It is transmitted through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person.

There is no specific cure, but vaccines have been used since 2019.

The WHO had announced in mid-January that it wanted to create a global storage facility with up to half a million vaccine doses.

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