Health workers in DR Congo move a patient to a hospital after he was cleared of Ebola on November 4, 2018. PHOTO | AFP
The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is now the second biggest in
history, with 426 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry
said late on Thursday.
The epidemic in a volatile part
of Democratic Republic of Congo is now only surpassed by the 2013-2016
outbreak in West Africa, where more than 28,000 cases where confirmed,
and is bigger than an outbreak in 2000 in Uganda involving 425 cases.
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.
Congo has suffered 10 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered there in 1976.
It
spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic
fever with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding, and in many
flare-ups, more than half of cases are fatal.
“This
tragic milestone clearly demonstrates the complexity and severity of the
outbreak,” Michelle Gayer, Senior Director of Emergency Health at the
International Rescue Committee said in a statement. “The dynamics of
conflict (mean) ... a protracted outbreak is ... likely, and the end is
not in sight.”
No comments :
Post a Comment