Ebola case detected in north-western province of Congo far from epicentre: Official
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The ongoing Ebola outbreak, Congo’s 17th, has so far infected 6,942 people, including 3,349 deaths, according to the latest government data.
PHOTO: REUTERS
GOMA – An Ebola case has been detected in a province in the north-western corner of Democratic Republic of Congo, far from the epicentre of the country’s most lethal outbreak on record, an official said on Sept 11.
The case involves a man who died on Sept 8 in the town of Gwaka, according to Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, the acting governor of Sud-Ubangi province where the town is located.
He travelled from South Kivu province in eastern Congo through Rwanda and Uganda before re-entering Congo and arriving in Sud-Ubangi, which borders Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, confirmed on Sept 11 that the man had tested positive for Ebola.
The authorities fear a large number of contacts due to the patient’s use of road and river transport, with neighbouring provinces and countries potentially at risk, Jean-Jacques Mbungani, a former health minister and a lawmaker from the area, said in a post on social media platform X.
Local transmission has not yet been confirmed in Sud-Ubangi, meaning it has not been added to the list of provinces officially affected by the epidemic, which was first confirmed in mid-May.
The ongoing Ebola outbreak, Congo’s 17th, has so far infected 6,942 people, including 3,349 deaths, according to the latest government data.
It is the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the outbreak in West Africa that lasted from 2014 to 2016. REUTERS