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Ebola outbreak declared in Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Health officials today announced an outbreak of Ebola virus in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to WHO, nine suspected cases — including three deaths — have been reported since April 22 in an area more than 800 miles north of the capital of Kinshasa. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told Infectious Disease News that Ebola was confirmed as the cause of one of the deaths. Six patients are currently hospitalized.
Congo’s most recent Ebola outbreak happened in August 2014 and was unrelated to the epidemic in West Africa that began in 2013 and killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Although WHO declared an end to the West African Ebola epidemic in January 2016, flare-ups have persisted in some areas and clusters continue to emerge, primarily linked to survivors who transmit the virus through semen.
WHO said its regional director for Africa, Matshidiso R. Moeti, MB, BS, MSc, would arrive in Kinshasa this weekend to coordinate the response to the current outbreak in Congo. The agency, which was criticized as being slow to react to the West African epidemic, said it has drawn up a plan to address the outbreak, including tracing contacts of suspected patients.
Ebola is named for Congo’s Ebola River, which lies near one of two outbreaks that led to the disease’s discovery in 1976. There is no approved vaccine for the virus, but researchers reported recently that an experimental drug was 100% effective at preventing the disease during a ring vaccination trial conducted in Guinea.
Although case fatality rates as high as 90% have been recorded in past Ebola outbreaks, the average fatality rate is around 50%, according to WHO. – by Gerard Gallagher