The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after three people died and another six came down with a hemorrhagic fever believed to be due to Ebola virus infection.
Nine suspected cases have been reported since April 22.
"The region affected lies 1,300km (800 miles) north-east of Kinshasa, close to the border with the Central African Republic".
In addition, two more people in the area have been identified as suspected cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 11, WHO's Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi told Reuters. "We need to take this very seriously", he added.
The WHO described the outbreak as "a public health crisis of worldwide importance".
"The first teams of epidemiologists, biologists and experts in the areas of social mobilization, risk communication and community engagement, [as well as] personnel specializing in water, hygiene and sanitation, are scheduled to reach the affected area today or tomorrow", Dr. Yokouidé Allarangar, WHO representative in the DRC, said in a separate statement.
Testing of five samples was conducted at the country's National Biomedical Research Institute in Kinshasa, with one coming back positive for Ebola, specifically the Zaire species of the virus. Additional specimens are now being tested and results, including sequencing, are awaited to describe the outbreak.
The country has fought seven outbreaks before the current one; the most recent was between August and November of 2014, and involved 66 cases. In addition, two American nurses were infected after caring for a Liberian man who died from the virus in the hospital where they worked.
US intelligence chiefs say reviewing use of Kaspersky software
Recent reports indicated that the FBI is investigating alleged links between the firm and the Russian government. Some worry it might offer Russian intelligence a secret backdoor into users' computers.
The WHO said on its Twitter feed it is working with Congo's Ministry of Health to contain the outbreak. During that outbreak, which was declared a "public health emergency of global concern" by the WHO, the Western Hemisphere also saw its first Ebola patients.
"RDC has very experienced human resources to do this", the WHO noted in calling on partner organizations to rally and provide a "coordinated and appropriate" response.
The country "has taken all necessary measures to respond quickly and efficiently to this new outbreak", he said.
An Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-15 killed over 11,000 people.
DRC also saw a smaller-scale outbreak in 2014, at the time of the West African outbreak which grew into an epidemic.
Under an agreement between GAVI and Merck, the developer of an Ebola vaccine known as rVSV-ZEBOV, it said up to 300,000 doses of the shot would be available in case of an outbreak.
Among the questions that they will assess is whether to recommend the use of the Canadian vaccine.
Comments