Congo records a one-day record for confirmed cases of Ebola

KINSHASA (Reuters) – The Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed Wednesday 14 new cases of Ebola in its border regions in the east of the country, the largest increase of a day since the declaration of the last outbreak. August.

The outbreak of haemorrhagic fever in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri is already second in importance in history with 713 confirmed and probable cases and 439 deaths.

It is only overtaken by the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa, which involved more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths and led to substantial investments in a vaccine and treatments for the virus.

Health officials have struggled to cope with the current epidemic, the tenth largest in the Congo since 1976, largely because of the widespread violence perpetrated by militias in eastern Congo, which has hindered the response.

The Ministry of Health said in a daily bulletin that nine of the new cases were in the health zone of Katwa, just outside Butembo, a town of several hundred thousand people located near the border. Ugandan and which has become the new epicenter of the epidemic. Another case was in Butembo.

The ministry also announced six new confirmed case death cases as well as the recovery of a patient.

(Report by Stanis Bujakera and Fiston Mahamba, written by Aaron Ross, edited by William Maclean and Peter Graff)

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