Nurse dead in Congo as Ebola vaccination campaign launched

● Death toll hits 27 while government unveils £3m emergency funding

0 Medecins Sans Frontiere team members walk through an Ebola security zone at the entrance of the Wangata Reference Hospital in Mbandaka in north-western Congo A nurse has died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the country begins a vaccination campaign in an attempt to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

The nurse’s death brings the death toll to 27, according to health minister Oly Ilunga. A number of other cases are suspected.

Mr Ilunga said: “We have established surveillance mechanisms and are following all cases and contacts.

“The response is well organised because we have also put in surveillance measures at the entry and exit points of Mbandaka.”

In a hopeful sign, two patients who were confirmed as positive for Ebola have recovered, and are returning to their homes though they will be monitored, Ilunga said.

They have left the hospital “with a medical certificate attesting that they’ve recovered and can no longer transmit the disease because they have developed antibodies against Ebola,” he said.

Ebola, however, does in many cases remain longer in semen, and therefore can be transmitted through sexual contact for some months after recovery.

Congo’s health delegation, including the health minister and representatives of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, have arrived in Mbandaka, the north-western city of 1.2 million where Ebola has spread, to launch the vaccination campaign yesterday.

Twenty-four vaccinators, including Congolese and Guineans who administered the vaccine in their country during the 2014-16 outbreak, are in Mbandaka to start injecting the 540 doses that have arrived, the health minister said. It will take five days to vaccinate about 100 contacts of registered patients, including 73 health care staff, who have had contact with patients and their relatives in the Wangata and Bolenge health zones of Mbandaka, he said.

The vaccine is still in the test stages, but it was effective toward the end of the Ebola epidemicthatkilledmorethan 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia from 2014 to 2016. A major challenge will be keeping the vaccines cold in this vast, impoverished, tropical country where infrastructure is poor.

Congo president Joseph Kabila and his cabinet agreed Saturday to increase funds for the Ebola emergency to more than £3 million. The cabinet also endorsed the decision to provide free health care in the affected areas and to provide special care to all Ebola victims and their relatives.

The US Agency for International Development has said that it has provided an initial £750,000 to combat the outbreak. The funds are going to WHO in support of its joint strategic response plan with Congo’s government.