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Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are rushing to contain a possible Ebola outbreak, after a woman has died from the virus near the eastern town of Butembo.
The woman developed symptoms on February 1 in the town of Biena, North Kivu. She died in Butembo hospital two days later. She was married to a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak.
“It was a farmer, the wife of an Ebola survivor, who showed typical signs of the disease on February 1,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo told state television RTNC.
The virus can live in the semen of male survivors for more than three years, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The provincial response team is already working hard. It will be supported by the national intervention team which will soon go to Butembo, ”said the statement from the Ministry of Health.
The announcement potentially marks the start of the twelfth Ebola outbreak in Congo since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976, more than double that of any other country.
Symptoms are severe: high fever and muscle pain followed by vomiting and diarrhea, rash, kidney and liver failure, internal and external bleeding.
It comes three months after the Congo announced the end of its eleventh outbreak, hundreds of kilometers to the west, which infected 130 people and killed 55.
Widespread use of Ebola vaccines, which have been administered to more than 40,000 people, has helped curb the disease.
This outbreak in the west of the country overlapped with an earlier outbreak in the east that began in 2018 and ended in June. It has killed more than 2,200 people, the second highest number in the history of the disease. It has been made worse by unprecedented challenges, including entrenched conflict between armed groups, the world’s largest measles outbreak and the spread of Covid.
The emergence of new cases could complicate efforts to eradicate Covid-19, which has infected 23,600 people and killed 681 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A vaccination campaign should start in the first half of this year.
“While there is hope that this early identification of an infection can help quickly contain this epidemic, back-to-back Ebola and Covid-19 outbreaks have pushed Congolese health systems to the limit, which could put a lot more pressure on an already exasperated country. Said Jason Kindrachuk, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and who is leading research on survivors of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. 2016, the deadliest ever
The Congo’s rainforests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is spread through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, vomit and semen.
In a statement released on Sunday, the World Health Organization said it was not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak and that previous responses to Ebola were already making it easier to manage. -this.
“The expertise and capacity of the local health teams were essential in detecting this new case of Ebola and paving the way for a rapid response,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa . WHO is investigating the case and is trying to identify the strain of the virus to determine its link to the previous outbreak.
Congo has suffered from more than a quarter of a century of conflict and mistrust of government health workers and other foreigners is high in eastern Congo. Residents of Butembo are already wondering why it took four days from the time the woman was tested to announce the results.
“It’s frustrating because the contacts will have moved and it will be difficult to find them,” said Vianey Kasondoli, a resident of Butembo.
“The government and the Ministry of Health must contain the disease as quickly as possible.”
The average Ebola death rate is around 50% but it can reach 90% for some epidemics, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus that causes Ebola virus is believed to reside in bats.
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