WHO Says Third Ebola Patient Confirmed In Northwest DRC’s Mbandaka City

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday said health authorities have confirmed a third Ebola case in the city of Mbandaka in the northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), reported Reuters.

The WHO confirmed on Twitter that the third Ebola patient is a 48-year-old man who is a high-risk contact of the first patient, who died on April 21.

The UN health body said the responders have tracked 444 contacts and continue to monitor their health.

The DRC authorities declared a new outbreak in the city of Mbandaka, in the northwestern Equateur Province on April 22.

The first patient began experiencing symptoms on April 5 and opted for treatment at a local health facility before being admitted to an Ebola treatment center on April 21, the UN health body stated. He died later that day, the organization confirmed.

A second victim of the virus breathed his last on April 25, after experiencing symptoms for more than a week, the WHO said last week. The 25-year-old woman was the first victim’s sister-in-law.

The health authorities began Ebola vaccinations in Mbandaka, the capital of Congo’s Equateur province, last week.

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, said many residents of Mbandaka have taken an Ebola vaccine. She added that the people who were vaccinated two years ago when the DRC experienced an outbreak of the virus will be revaccinated.

The UN health body assured that the DRC has huge supplies of the Ebola vaccine, adding that the country’s health authorities are more experienced in containing the disease than anywhere else in the world. Investigations to determine the source of the current outbreak remain ongoing.

The current outbreak is the DRC’s 14th in the history of hemorrhagic fever. The country has experienced 13 Ebola outbreaks in total, including one that started in 2018 and claimed nearly 2,300 victims, according to WHO.