Guinea confirms 2 new Ebola cases, 3 probable in southeast

In this Sept. 28, 2007 file photo, Gary Kobinger works in a mobile laboratory set up by the Public Health Agency of Canada in Mweka, Democratic Republic of Congo. Kobinger, head of special pathogens at the agency, was among the experts who examined the work done by Metabiota Inc. and Tulane University at the government laboratory in Kenema, Sierra Leone, during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. After double-checking some of the facility’s work, he found worrying discrepancies in four of eight tests and said that as many as five or more people were wrongly diagnosed with Ebola. AP FILE PHOTO

CONAKRY, Guinea — Two bodies tested positive for Ebola in Guinea, the government said Thursday, months after the outbreak was declared over in the West African country and hours after Sierra Leone announced the end of the recent flare-up of the virus there.

The cases emerged from the same family out of Koropara, in the N’Zerekore prefecture, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southeast of Guinea’s capital, Conakry, said Ibrahima Sylla, a spokesman for the national coordination for the fight against Ebola. Sylla said there are three other probable cases, and health authorities are taking appropriate measures to contain the spread.

An emergency meeting will be held Friday with the Ministry of Health, said Dr. Sakoba Keita, the national coordinator of the fight against Ebola.

Earlier Thursday, the deputy director general of the N’Zerekore Regional Hospital, Dr. Zoba Guilavogui, said a man and woman from the same family died of an illness like Ebola, but tests were pending.

Guinea was declared free from Ebola on Dec. 29. It would be celebrating the end of its 90-day heightened surveillance period at the end of March.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

READ: SLeone puts over 100 people in quarantine after new Ebola death

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak over Jan. 14 when Liberia became the last of the three countries to have ended transmissions. The next day, however, a corpse tested positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone, which saw a flare-up of another case.

WHO and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation announced the end of that Ebola flare-up Thursday. The declaration came 42 days — two 21-day incubation cycles of the virus — since the last confirmed Ebola patient tested negative for a second time.

Despite gains, experts warn flare-ups are likely.

READ: Suspected death from Ebola in Sierra Leone—official