Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with almost 50 known cases in a large region bordering the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, said Monday that 48 cases had been confirmed in the Equateur province of the DRC since authorities announced a new outbreak there on June 1.
There were three additional probable cases, he said, while a total of 20 people have died.
“This is still a very active outbreak, and I would say it is still a huge concern,” Ryan said at a press conference.
The province includes part of the Congo River, he said, adding that it was a large geographic area where communities were united and people traveled long distances.
The most recent outbreak is the eleventh in the DRC since scientists first characterized the disease in 1976.
The WHO said it has vaccinated 11,327 people against Ebola in the past month.
The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and is spread through direct contact with body fluids of an infected person, who suffers from severe vomiting and diarrhea.
A virus epidemic on the other side of the country that started in August 2018 killed more than 2,277 people. The WHO declared the outbreak in Ituri and North Kivu provinces on June 25.
Experts said the use of a vaccine and rapid containment efforts that include mobile hand-washing stations and a door-to-door education campaign kept the disease at bay.
While the number of infections in the new outbreak is low, Ryan cautioned, “In the COVID era, it is very important that we not take our eyes off these other emerging diseases.”
“We saw in North Kivu and other previous Ebola outbreaks that these can get out of control very easily,” he added.
The DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, is also grappling with a measles epidemic that has killed more than 6,000 people, as well as COVID-19, which has infected more than 3,000 and killed 188, according to official figures. .
In its latest weekly newsletter on Monday, the WHO said the growing outbreak in Equateur was a “serious” issue given the complex humanitarian crisis in the DRC, with multiple disease outbreaks, as well as continued clashes between armed groups that have displaced thousands of people in the east of the country.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
.
