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Ebola outbreak in Congo claims more lives, vaccinations underway
[10 News] The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province claimed more lives as the country's Health Ministry announced on Thursday a new death in the city of Mabalako.At least 37 people have died so far in this latest outbreak, the 10th for country. Ebola cases have also been reported in the towns of Beni, Butembo, Oicha, Musienene and Mandima, according to Congo's Health Ministry. A total of 44 cases of hemorrhagic fever have been reported in the region, of which 17 are confirmed and 27 are probable, the ministry said in a statement Thursday. An additional 54 suspected cases are under investigation, the ministry said. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization confirmed that the latest cases in Congo's North Kivu province are part of the Zaire strain of the virus and that there is no link to a separate outbreak, which occurred in the western Equateur province that has since been declared over. "It's good news and it's very bad news," WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama told journalists in Geneva, after the new cases were first confirmed. "The bad news is that this strain of Ebola carries with it the highest case-fatality-rate of any of the strains of Ebola, anywhere above 50% and higher, according to previous outbreaks," he said. "So, it's the most-deadly variant of the Ebola virus strains that we have, that's the bad news. The good news is that we do have -- although it's still an investigational product -- a safe and effective vaccine, that we were able to deploy last time around." According to WHO, this outbreak, which is in an active conflict zone, will be more complicated to contain than any that came before. Posted by: Frank G 2018-08-10 |
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