Ebola Outbreak Kills 65 in Congo

AP

A health worker sprays disinfectant on his colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, 9 September 2018.

Africa’s top public health body has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s Ituri province, the 17th since the disease first emerged in the country in 1976.

A total of 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths have already been recorded in the new outbreak, the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said in a statement on Friday.

The suspected Ebola cases have mainly been recorded in Ituri’s Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones. Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

So far, only four of the deaths reported are laboratory-confirmed cases, but the new outbreak was confirmed after many suspected cases.

Ituri is in a remote eastern part of Congo with poor road networks, and is more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa.

One major concern, the Africa CDC said, is the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan. Bunia, Ituri’s main city, is near the border with Uganda.

Uganda on Friday confirmed an ‌outbreak of the highly infectious Ebola virus disease, the ⁠health ministry said, adding that the outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain.

The ministry said the case ‌was ⁠an imported infection from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ⁠patient died in intensive care on ⁠14 May after ⁠developing hemorrhagic symptoms.

The Africa CDC said there’s also risk of further spread due to intense population movement and attacks by armed groups that have killed dozens and displaced thousands in parts of Ituri province in the past year.

The Ebola Zaire strain was prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks, including the 2018 to 2020 outbreak in the eastern region that killed more than 1,000 people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said during Congo’s Ebola outbreak last year that the country has a stockpile of treatments and some 2,000 doses of vaccine. However, the vaccine is directed at Ebola Zaire, it said.

The Africa CDC has convened an urgent high-level coordination meeting Friday with health authorities from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, together with key partners including U.N. agencies and other countries.

The meeting, the agency said, will focus on immediate response priorities, cross-border coordination, surveillance, safe and dignified burials and resource mobilisation, among other areas.

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be transmitted to humans from wild animals before spreading through contact with bodily fluids, including blood, vomit and semen, as well as contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

The disease caused by the virus is rare but severe, and is often fatal. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain, and in some cases internal and external bleeding.

The virus was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Initial outbreaks were reported in remote villages in Central Africa close to tropical rainforests.

Sources: AP, Reuters



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