DRC Declares Fresh New Ebola Outbreak In North-Western City Of Mbandaka

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government declared a new Ebola epidemic on Monday in the western city of Mbandaka in Équateur Province, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and other challenges, reported Reuters.

The announcement came just weeks before the country’s health authorities hoped to declare the end of another Ebola epidemic in the country’s east.

The DRC Health Minister Eteni Longondo confirmed that four people who died in Mbandaka were found to be Ebola infected following testing at the national biomedical laboratory in the capital Kinshasa.

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

The minister added that he planned to visit the site of the outbreak at the end of the week.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also confirmed the Ebola outbreak in a tweet that read, “This outbreak is a reminder that #COVID19 is not the only health threat people face.”

The newest outbreak in the DRC’s northwest is the 11th in the country since the disease was first characterised in 1976.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the new Ebola outbreak in Mbandaka is a challenge for all, but the WHO is ready to tackle it.

The DRC has not yet got over an Ebola outbreak that began in August 2018 killed over 2,200 people, the world’s second-deadliest outbreak of the disease on record. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the two-year-old outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in July 2019. The outbreak was just three days away from being declared over when a new case was reported in April this year.

The DRC is also facing a coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 3,195 people so far – 2,896 in the capital, Kinshasa – and 72 deaths, according to the latest official figures.