Deadly new front in Congo Ebola crisis

Authorities in Congo announced a new Ebola outbreak in the western city of Mbandaka on Monday, adding to another epidemic of the virus that has raged in the eastern part of the country since 2018.

Six cases have been detected — four of them fatal

— in the city, a trading hub of 1.5 million people on the Congo River with regular transport links to the capital Kinshasa.

Mbandaka is 1,620 miles from an outbreak that has killed more than 2,200 people in North Kivu province near the Uganda border, where containment efforts have been hampered by armed conflict.

The new outbreak is Congo’s 11th since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976.

“We have a new Ebola epidemic in Mbandaka,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo told reporters. “We are going to very quickly send them the vaccine and medicine.”

The Ebola virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person, who suffers severe vomiting and diarrhea.

The new discovery is a major blow for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has suffered three Ebola outbreaks since 2017. It is also combating a measles epidemic that has killed more than 6,000 and COVID-19, which has infected some 3,000 and killed 71.

The Health Ministry was two days away from declaring the end of the eastern North Kivu outbreak in April when a new chain of infection was confirmed. No new cases have been detected there in more than 30 days.

Ebola was detected in Mbandaka in 2018, leading to fear sit could spread fast there, or reach Kinshasa, which is home to 10 million people.

However, the use of a vaccine and swift containment efforts, including mobile handwashing stations and door-to-door education outreach, kept it at bay.