Twenty one new cases and six deaths reported as health officials warn of continued community transmission….reports Africa News Desk
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has continued to intensify, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 896, including 232 deaths, according to the latest update from the country’s health authorities.
The Health Ministry reported 21 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, including six fatalities, in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu. The outbreak, linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, has now spread across 33 health zones in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.
Health officials said 383 patients were currently either hospitalised or in isolation, while 78 people have recovered from the disease. Eleven of those recoveries were newly recorded after patients tested negative in follow up examinations.
Authorities also registered 151 suspected cases on Wednesday, including 35 deaths. Contact tracing efforts remain extensive, with 6,367 people under monitoring across the affected provinces. Of those, 4,525 were successfully reached during the reporting period, resulting in a follow up rate of 71.1 per cent.
The latest figures indicate that the outbreak continues to expand, with confirmed infections increasing steadily each week. Health authorities warned that the virus could spread rapidly to new areas unless containment and surveillance measures are strengthened.
The current outbreak, officially declared on May 15, is the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak.
Ebola is a severe and often fatal viral disease that causes symptoms including fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and impaired liver and kidney function in severe cases.
The disease was first identified in 1976 during simultaneous outbreaks in present day South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The virus was named after the nearby Ebola River in northern Congo, where one of the first outbreaks was recorded.
