Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) on Sunday confirmed another Ebola outbreak in the country’s east, the fourth in less than three years.
On Wednesday, a woman died in Butembo town in North Kivu Province, Congolese Minister of Health Eteni Longondo said.
The woman from the nearby village of Biena felt sick for a few days before being tested in a clinic there. She then went to a hospital in Butembo, but died before receiving the results.
Photo: AFP
The government has begun tracing people who came in contact with her to “eradicate the epidemic as soon as possible,” Longondo said.
This is the 12th outbreak in conflict-ridden DR Congo since the Ebola virus was first discovered in the country in 1976, and comes less than three months after an outbreak in the western province of Equateur, officially ended in November last year.
The 2018 outbreak in Eastern Congo was the second-deadliest in the world, killing 2,299 people before it ended in June last year.
That outbreak lasted for nearly two years and was fought amid unprecedented challenges, including entrenched conflict between armed groups, the world’s largest measles epidemic and the spread of COVID-19.
Health officials worry that a new Ebola outbreak could badly affect the nation’s fragile health system, especially as it faces a resurgence of COVID-19.
“While there is hope that this early identification of an infection may help with quickly containing this outbreak, back-to-back Ebola outbreaks and COVID-19 has stretched Congo’s health systems to the limit and this could put far greater strain on an already exasperated system,” said Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor at the department of medical microbiology and infectious diseases at Canada’s University of Manitoba and who is conducting research on survivors from the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest ever.
The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen.
While the source of contamination is still unknown, the woman who died was the wife of an Ebola survivor, the government said.
In a statement on Sunday, the WHO said it was not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak and that previous Ebola responses were making it easier to deal with this one.
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