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Kinshasa (AFP) – The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in Goma, the largest city in the country affected by the disease since its epidemic last August in eastern DRC, the ministry said on Sunday. of Health.
The patient is a pastor who preached at the church and touched the hands of the faithful "including the sick," the ministry said in a statement.
His symptoms appeared for the first time last Tuesday in Butembo, one of the major cities affected by the Ebola virus where he preached.
He left on Friday by bus to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, where he arrived early Sunday morning, where "the results of laboratory tests confirmed that he was positive for Ebola," announced the Ministry.
"Since the patient was quickly identified, as well as all bus passengers arriving from Butembo, the risk of spreading the disease in Goma City is low," the ministry said.
The other 18 passengers and the driver will begin to be vaccinated on Monday, he added.
Health workers in Goma were vaccinated as early as December, when the outbreak hit Butembo 300 km further north.
The two cities are separated by bad roads under the threat of armed groups.
The latest Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has so far killed 1,655 people and 694 have been cured, according to a Health Ministry newsletter released on Saturday.
And 160,239 people were vaccinated, he added.
The World Health Organization had initially indicated that it hoped to contain the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, thanks in part to the new vaccine.
But efforts to cope with the crisis have been hampered both by militia attacks on treatment centers in which some staff members were killed and by the hostility of some local people to the killing. medical teams.
The prevailing insecurity in the region, with the presence of various rebel groups in Ituri and North Kivu, also makes it difficult for health workers to access people who are likely to live in the area. 39, have been in contact with Ebola.
The disease spreads in humans through close contact with blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected person, or objects contaminated with these fluids.
The current epidemic is the tenth in the DRC in 40 years, putting all of East Africa on alert.
It's already the second deadliest ever recorded in the world after the outbreak that hit West Africa in 2014-2016 and killed more than 11,300 people.
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