DRC Confirms Ebola Outbreak Near Border
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing to contain an Ebola outbreak announced this week. At least two people are confirmed to have died of the virus in a remote village of the northwestern DRC, very close to the border of the Republic of Congo. Health experts caution against panic, pointing to the DRC’s strong track record in recent years in containing Ebola outbreaks.
The nation’s health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, has been keeping people updated on social media, tweeting that on Thursday – some 24 hours after the initial announcement of the outbreak – a team of 12 experts landed in Mbandaka, the city closest to the outbreak.
Earlier this week, he said Ebola had been confirmed in two of 17 hemorrhagic fever deaths seen in recent weeks in the northwest village of Bikoro.
The World Health Organization has released $1 million from its emergency fund to respond to this outbreak. WHO and Doctors Without Borders are leading the response, and have sent experts to the site.
Medical group Doctors without Borders told VOA its experts are also in Bikoro.
This is not Congo’s first encounter with the hemorrhagic fever, which causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. The virus derives its name from the place it was first discovered, the Ebola River, a tributary of the Congo river, in 1976. The average survival rate is 50 percent, according to the World Health Organization.
“…Last year, there was an Ebola outbreak in part of DRC as well that was contained relatively quickly, so we are hoping to do the same thing this time around, to send quickly teams to the area where the virus has been confirmed to be circulating, to be in position to identify those who are sick, to be in position to identify those who have been potentially exposed, to put in place all those necessary measures that are used every time when there is an Ebola outbreak to try to stop the transmission as fast as possible,” said spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
This latest outbreak happened in an area near the banks of the Congo River. Because this region is poor in infrastructure, its many waterways are vital for transport and trade activities.
Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in a two-year outbreak that ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2014 and 2016. So far, none of the recent outbreaks in Congo has been connected to that event.
Jasarevic noted that locals also have an important role to play.
“It is really important that communities in this particular area is (cq) engaged, is (cq) working together with authorities in terms of safe burial practices, in terms of proper contact tracing, to be compliant with those procedures,” said Jasarevic. “The community engagement has been proven as a key component in successful containment of an Ebola outbreak.”
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and is spread person to person through direct contact with bodily fluids, including but not limited to blood, sweat, saliva, breast milk and tears.
