WHO Confirms New Ebola Outbreak In The Democratic Republic of Congo

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a new case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), four months after the end of the country’s last outbreak, reported UN News.

The DRC health authorities confirmed the case in the city of Mbandaka, in the northwestern Equateur Province. The patient was a 31-year-old man, who started experiencing symptoms 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. The health workers submitted the patient’s samples to test for Ebola.

The DRC health authorities have confirmed just one Ebola case so far and investigations to determine the source of the outbreak are ongoing.

“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 health authorities in the DRC have a lot of experience in controlling Ebola outbreaks quickly.

The WHO official 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 vaccinations will start in the coming days with stockpiles of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine already available in the cities of Goma and Kinshasa.

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.