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The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that the third Ebola case identified in South Kivu province concerned a patient who contracted the virus at a health center where other patients had been treated. treaties.
The details of nosocomial transmission appeared in the latest WHO status report on the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Last week, two other regions of the DRC, far from home outbreaks, reported cases: the province of South Kivu and the health zone of Pinga, located in the province of North Kivu.
The WHO is still investigating how the case-patient of Pinga contracted the virus, but investigations have shown that a mother and child from Mwenga, in South Kivu, had been contaminated after having been in contact with a patient from Beni, the city most affected by the outbreak of this summer. . The two cities are 475 km apart and the province of South Kivu shares a border with Rwanda and Burundi.
"The third confirmed case was a co-patient in a community health facility where the first cases had initially been treated," said WHO. The WHO said that 11% of all cases in this outbreak came from nosocomial transmission and that 5% involved health workers.
The number of cases rises to 2,927
In the last three weeks, authorities have confirmed 215 cases in the provinces of North Kivu, Ituri and South Kivu, most of them from Beni (33%) and Mandima (20%). Fifty-seven cases of Ebola were confirmed last week, which represents a slight decrease from the summer average of about 80 cases per week.
Today, however, the WHO Ebola scorecard reports 18 new confirmed cases, bringing the total epidemic to 2,927, including 1,953 deaths. Officials are still investigating 347 suspected cases.
Women account for 58% of cases, the WHO said, and children 28%.
Rwanda buys a vaccine
The Rwandan newspaper The new time announced that the country is in talks to acquire 100,000 doses of Merck's rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine to vaccinate merchants working at the Rwandan border as a preventive measure.
The Ministry of Health gave no further details about when the authorities would begin the vaccination campaign, but officials told the BBC that they would focus on the 60,000 Traders entering and leaving the DRC most often, the article said.
In addition, the European Union (EU) announced that it would help Burundi obtain funding for Ebla's readiness measures, including monitoring efforts. The EU will pay to the country 465,000 euros ($ 515,430 dollars), allocated through the intermediary of WHO.
Finally, the Norwegian Refugee Council yesterday released a new report on the epidemic and said that convincing local communities in the DRC of the severity of the epidemic was the most important step needed for put an end to the crisis.
"Communities are reluctant to work with Ebola teams," said Nema Dounamou, head of the WHO team in Beni. "The more time passes, the more people are used to the threat.We are already struggling with people who do not realize the seriousness of the epidemic."
See also:
August 19, WHO status report
WHO Ebola Dashboard
20 August New times story
August 20, press release of the EU
Report of the Norwegian Refugee Council of 20 August
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