Ebola schools reopened in Guinea

Ebola: schools in Guinea reopened after seven months

01/20/2015

In West Guinea, after seven months of compulsory schooling, lessons have begun again for millions of students. The schools and universities had been closed for fear of the spread of Ebola. Positive news also comes from Mali. There the epidemic was officially declared over.

Students had to have their temperature measured
In Guinea, after a months-long forced break due to Ebola, classes have started again for millions of students after a months-long compulsory break, the news agency dpa reports. The schools and universities of the West African country had been closed for about seven months for fear of spreading the deadly infectious disease. Hundreds of thousands of students had to wash their hands at newly installed disinfection points and have their temperature measured before they could return to the classroom. The Ebola Center of the country had distributed around 20,000 infrared thermometers to the schools. Fever is one of the first Ebola symptoms after infection.

Many are still afraid of Ebola
The 8,800 elementary schools in Guinea alone count around 1.7 million students. It was said that many stayed home on Monday, either out of fear of Ebola or because some did not know it was about to reopen. The situation is still worrying, a mother at the Safia school in Guinea's capital Conakry told the agency. „I brought my two kids here today, but honestly, I'm scared“, so Mariam Bah. An expert from the children's charity Unicef ​​estimated that on Monday perhaps only about 30 percent of the students had come. Nevertheless, she was confident that in two weeks at the latest, everyone would return to school.

Positive news from Mali
Last week Guinea decided to reopen schools after the number of new Ebola infections fell. Last year, the schools closed for summer holidays on June 30, but did not reopen in October due to Ebola. So far, more than 1,800 people have died of the dangerous virus in Guinea. Good news also came from another country in West Africa: The Ebola epidemic in Mali has ended recently was announced. The Minister of Health of the country, which is not one of the countries most affected by the disease, had reported that there had been no new case for 42 days.

Schools in Sierra Leone remain closed
In Liberia, which is one of the hardest hit countries, schools are due to reopen in February due to progress in the fight against the epidemic. Only Sierra Leone, currently the worst affected by the disease, wants to keep it closed for now. In the three most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the number of victims of Ebola continued to rise. According to a statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday evening, at least 8,594 people have died of Ebola - 126 more than three days earlier. The number of registered infections at the organization increased to 21,614. (Ad)

Image: Dieter Schütz