Ebola makes deadly comeback in Congo
KINSHASA: Congo’s minister of health announced the first death since a new Ebola outbreak was declared in the country, as well as nine other cases of people sickened by a haemorrhagic fever that is suspected as Ebola.
Health officials declared an Ebola outbreak in the country’s northwest on Tuesday after lab tests confirmed the deadly virus in two cases from the town of Bikoro in the Equateur province.
Officials from the World Health Organisation and other international health agencies are in the area to help contain the outbreak’s spread.
Seven people with a haemorrhagic fever, including two confirmed cases of Ebola, were hospitalised in Bikoro as of Thursday, according to Health Minister Oly Ilunga.
The death happened overnight at a hospital in nearby Ikoko Impenge hospital that also reported four new suspected cases of Ebola, Ilunga said.
Ilunga said that the patient who died was a nurse. Three other nurses also were being treated for a hemorrhagic fever.
The minister clarified that testing still must be done in nine cases, and equipment to conduct rapid testing on the patients has been dispatched.
“This situation worries us and requires a very immediate and energetic response,” he said.
The two Ebola cases were confirmed as the Zaire strain after officials were alerted early this month to the deaths of 17 people from a haemorrhagic fever and travelled to the Bikoro area to perform tests.
The deaths occurred over a period of time and Ebola, which is not the only virus responsible for haemorrhagic fevers, has not been confirmed as the cause in any of the 17 cases, Ilunga said.
Bikoro Hospital director Dr Serge Ngalebato said that nurses at the hospital were among the five suspected Ebola cases there.
This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the deadly disease was first identified.