Ebola outbreak Congo: 20 new cases confirmed as disease SPREADS – ‘It’s EXCEPTIONAL’

The worst ebola crisis ever faced by the central African country keeps spreading across its northeastern region. The daily bulletins released by the DRC’s health ministry in the past two days confirmed on Thursday seven new cases of hemorrhagic fever and 13 more the day before. The country’s health ministry highlighted the severeness of the outbreak. 

Commenting Wednesday’s bulletin, considered one of the highest daily counts since the outbreak was first detected in August, health ministry spokeswoman Jessica Ilunga said: “It’s pretty exceptional.”

Ebola’s new outbreak in Congo has so far affected 393 people.

According to the latest report released by the DRC’s health ministry, dated November 22, 346 people have so far been confirmed as infected by ebola.

47 more are being investigated as “suspected”. 

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A total number of 222 people were killed by the virus, while 117 recovered.

The epidemic has hit heavily the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, bordering Uganda and Rwanda, which sparked fears the outbreak could spread to other countries.

This led the World Health Organization (WHO) to vaccinate health care workers in high-risk districts bordering the DRC.

The organisation explained: “In vaccinating frontline health workers against ebola, even before Uganda detects a single case, health authorities are being cautious having learned bitter lessons from previous outbreaks.” 

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The number of new cases has accelerated in the past month.

An emergency committee of WHO experts said last month that the outbreak was likely to worsen significantly unless the response was stepped up.

But what the WHO described as “ongoing challenges” are making even more difficult for local and worldwide authorities to intervene and contain the outbreak.

As confirmed in the latest WHO external situation report on the outbreak, treatments, vaccination programmes and safe burials of victims had to be suspended last Friday after an armed group tried to attack UN peacekeepers in the city of Beni, North Kivu. 

Despite the peacekeepers managed to push back the attackers after hours of violent clashes, all field activities were suspended in the city until Sunday. 

And earlier this month at least seven peacekeepers were killed and 10 others were wounded in a coordinated military attack on rebel forces, according to the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC.

The violences are the result of both battles to control the region and a mistrust of health directives.

The violence and the complexity of containing ebola outbreaks, led experts to believe the outbreak will last for at least “six more months”. 

Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response said: “It’s very hard to predict timeframes in an outbreak as complicated as this with so many variables that are outside our control, but certainly we’re planning on at least another six months before we can declare this outbreak over.”

Congo has suffered 10 ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered near its eponymous Ebola River in 1976.

According to the WHO, first symptoms of ebola are the sudden onset of fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.

This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.