Medics in Guinea were on Friday racing to track down suspected carriers of the Ebola virus, after they fled a southeastern town where the country’s first case in nearly a month was detected the previous day.

The case followed a “cluster of suspicious deaths” in Soulouta, the West African country’s World Health Organization (WHO) representative, Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, said.

“This illustrates the need for enhanced monitoring in the (local) ...region, but also in other regions ...to contain this new cluster as soon as possible,” he told Reuters.

After the case was diagnosed, some residents initially barricaded roads into the town, denying access to response teams who were now searching for other suspected Ebola cases who had fled, local officials said.