WHO Confirms Death Of Second Ebola Patient In Northwestern Democratic Republic Of Congo

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday announced a second Ebola patient has died in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), days after the health authorities declared a fresh outbreak of the deadly disease.

A WHO spokesperson told Reuters that the second fatality was a female, who was a relative of the first Ebola patient who died last week.

The first patient was a 31-year-old man, who started experiencing symptoms of Ebola on April 5. He sought treatment at a local health facility after being sick for more than a week at home. He was admitted to an Ebola treatment center on April 21 for intensive care but died later that day.

On Monday, the global health agency wrote on Twitter that genetic testing showed that the infection, which was confirmed last week, was a new “spillover event”, a transmission from an infected animal, and not linked to the last Ebola outbreak, which was declared over in December.

The DRC health authorities have said that they have begun investigations to determine the source of the outbreak.

“Time is not on our side,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “The disease has had a two-week head start and we are now playing catch-up.”

Moeti said that the DRC’s health authorities have a lot of experience in controlling Ebola outbreaks quickly.

She said a lot of people in Mbandaka are already vaccinated against Ebola and that should help reduce the impact of the disease. She added that those who were vaccinated during the 2020 outbreak will be vaccinated again.

The WHO said that efforts to contain the disease are already underway in Mbandaka. The DRC has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, and Mbandaka has seen two- the first in 2018 and the second in 2020.

The Ebola outbreak in 2018-2020 killed more than 2,300 people, the second-highest toll recorded in the history of hemorrhagic fever.