Congo announces 1st death amid Ebola outbreak in northwest
Congo's minister of health on Thursday announced the first death since a new
Ebola outbreak was declared in the country, as well as nine other cases of
people sickened by a hemorrhagic fever that is suspected as Ebola.
Health officials declared an Ebola outbreak in the country's northwest on
Tuesday after lab tests confirmed the deadly virus in two cases from the town of
Bikoro in the Equateur province. Officials from the World Health Organization
and other international health agencies are in the area to help contain the
outbreak's spread.
Seven people with a hemorrhagic fever, including two confirmed cases of
Ebola, were hospitalized in Bikoro as of Thursday, according to Health Minister
Oly Ilunga. The death happened overnight at a hospital in nearby Ikoko Impenge
hospital that also reported four new suspected cases of Ebola, Ilunga said.
Ilunga told The Associated Press that the patient who died was a nurse. Three
other nurses also were being treated for a hemorrhagic fever, he said.
The minister clarified with The Associated Press that testing still must be
done in nine cases, and equipment to conduct rapid testing on the patients has
been dispatched.
"This situation worries us and requires a very immediate and energetic
response," he said at a news conference.
The two Ebola cases were confirmed as the Zaire strain after officials in the
capital, Kinshasa, were alerted early this month to the deaths of 17 people from
a hemorrhagic fever and traveled to the Bikoro area to perform tests.
The deaths occurred over a period of time and Ebola, which is not the only
virus responsible for hemorrhagic fevers, has not been confirmed as the cause in
any of the 17 cases, Ilunga said.
Bikoro Hospital director Dr. Serge Ngalebato told The Associated Press
earlier Thursday that nurses at the hospital were among the five suspected Ebola
cases there.
"We have isolated the patients," Ngalebato said. "There are no deaths yet,
but all of the sick are presenting signs of fever, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal
pain and intense fatigue."
This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the deadly disease
was first identified.
Ebola occasionally jumps to humans from animals, including bats and
monkeys.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola, which is spread through the bodily
fluids of people exhibiting symptoms. Without preventive measures, the virus can
spread quickly between people and is fatal in up to 90 percent of cases.
The director of the National Institute of Biological and Bacterial Research,
Dr. Jean Jacques Muyembe, said Wednesday that health experts should be able to
quickly contain this outbreak because the area is so remote.
The cases could be linked to a policeman in the Bikoro health zone who
presented symptoms of hemorrhagic fever and died in December, Muyembe said. His
mother and 10 others then showed similar symptoms.
None of the Ebola outbreaks in Congo have been connected to the massive
outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa that began in 2014
and left more than 11,300 dead.
Source: AP
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