Congo announces 9 suspected Ebola cases

KINSHASA, Congo One person has been confirmed dead from Ebola in an outbreak in a remote corner of northern Congo as health authorities look into a total of nine suspected cases, including two other deaths, the country’s health minister and the World Health Organization said Friday.

One case of the hemorrhagic fever was confirmed out of the five tested since the outbreak emerged April 22 in Bas-Uele province, Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said.

The outbreak could test a recently developed experimental Ebola vaccine that WHO says could be used in emergencies. The global vaccine alliance GAVI said 300,000 doses are available “if needed to stop this outbreak becoming a pandemic.”

This vast, impoverished Central African nation has had seven known Ebola outbreaks in the past, including one in 2014 with several dozen cases. That outbreak was not connected to the massive epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that left thousands dead.

So far all the cases have been tied to a remote village, and it’s a strain of Ebola that’s been seen in the country before.

Allarangar Yokouide, the WHO representative in Congo, said the first teams of specialists should arrive in the affected area of Likati on Friday or Saturday. The zone is some 800 miles from the capital, Kinshasa.