Ebola deaths mount in DRC

– The ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has claimed 164 lives, according to health authorities.

In mid-October, Congolese authorities said they were facing a “second wave” of the outbreak centred on Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border with Uganda.

The epicentre had earlier been focused on Mangina, a town around 20km from Beni.

In total, 257 cases had been recorded in the region, of which 222 were confirmed and 35 were probable, since the start of the outbreak at the beginning of August, the Congolese health ministry said in a bulletin on Friday.

On October 17, the World Health Organisation said the death toll stood at 139 and the outbreak did not yet merit being labelled a global health emergency.

The second wave of the deadly virus

Kinshasa

has been attributed to community resistance to measures already taken to tackle the disease.

On Thursday, about 1 000 students marched in Beni to launch a campaign to fight ebola. Since a vaccination programme began on August 8, over 22 000 people have been innoculated, of whom about 11 000 were in Beni, the health ministry said, and an ebola treatment centre in the city now had more than 60 beds, it added. –

Since a vaccination programme began on August 8, over 22 000 people have been innoculated.