Two people have fallen ill with Ebola in Guinea, the World Health Organisation said yesterday, dashing hopes of an imminent end to the worst recorded outbreak of the disease after a two-week spell without any new cases across West Africa.

The new cases mean the epidemic, which began when a two-year-old boy fell ill in a remote Guinean village on December 26, 2013, risks dragging on into a third year and into 2016.

The outbreak has already killed 11,298 people out of almost 28,500 known cases in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Liberia was declared free of Ebola transmission on September 3 after 42 days with no new cases, and Sierra Leone is halfway to the same goal. But for Guinea, the end is not yet in sight.

The 42-day countdown only starts once the last patient tests negative a second time, normally after a 48-hour gap following their first negative test, Harris said.

Semen of male survivors can harbour the virus for nine months

A spokesman for Guinea’s anti-Ebola taskforce said one of the new patients, in Forecariah in western Guinea, had recovered and was discharged yesterday. The other, a 21-year-old man, who was not known to have had contact with any previous registered patients, remained in the Nongo treatment centre in Conakry.

“We suspect that he contracted the disease by another means, perhaps sexual, but we cannot be sure for the time being,” said Fode Tass Sylla. A study this week showed the semen of male survivors can harbour the virus for nine months, and the virus can also live on in other parts of the body.

Highlighting the lingering risks from the virus, a British nurse fell critically ill this week, 10 months after recovering from Ebola.