Ebola outbreak drc
WHO panel decides not to declare international Ebola emergency
Such a declaration would risk creating restrictions on travel or trade “that could severely harm the economy in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Aavitsland...
Ebola is believed to have killed 245 people in North Kivu and Ituri provinces where attacks by armed groups and community resistance to health officials have hampered the response.
The latest outbreak is the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976.
Ebola has spread to Beni, a city of several hundred thousand people where scores of people have been confirmed infected.
At least 100 people have died in the outbreak, out of 150 cases in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
Health officials say they have made progress slowing the haemmorhagic fever’s spread with experimental vaccines and treatments.
The death toll from the latest outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic disease has risen to 49 and the World Health Organisation says it expects more.
About 1,500 people have been identified as contacts of people infected with the disease, which causes fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Another 20 people died from unidentified haemorrhagic fevers in the area, mostly in the second half of July.
International experts set up a laboratory on Thursday in the city of Beni, 30 km from where the outbreak was declared.
The four confirmed cases of the deadly haemorrhagic disease come days after the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an end to the Ebola outbreak in the northeast.
Health officials have moved aggressively to contain the epidemic in a bid to head off a repeat of the 2013-16 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people.
Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, said more than 400 potential Ebola contacts had been vaccinated.
Since the DRC government announced the outbreak earlier this month, at least 26 people have died.
Vigilance has been tightened at airports with thermometers being used to screen passengers.
The latest incidence of the disease comes less than a year after the central African country’s last outbreak.
Of the 37 cases discovered since early May, two have been confirmed as Ebola including the latest death, are considered probable and 32 are suspected.
The UN fears communities living in Angola are carrying the mosquito borne virus into neighbouring countries.
Scientists are preparing vaccines for the next Ebola outbreak, which they say may be different.