The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that 31 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this month.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Thursday in Geneva that there are 48 “confirmed and probable cases” in the DRC amid its first Ebola outbreak in three years.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that the disease, previously confined to two districts, has now spread to four.
The outbreak was first announced two weeks ago near the town of Bulape.
Tedros said WHO and its partners were supporting the government’s response, delivering more than 14 tons of essential medical equipment and supplies and deploying 48 experts.
“We’ve helped to set up an Ebola treatment centre with 18 beds, with 16 patients currently being treated,” he told reporters.
Tedros said that vaccination efforts are under way for contacts, possible contacts, and front-line workers.
“Courses of the monoclonal antibody therapy Mab114 have also been sent to treatment centres in Bulape, and so far, 14 patients have received the drug,” he added.
Moreover, Tedros added that more than 900 contacts have been identified and that health authorities are following up with them. On Tuesday, the first two patients to recover were discharged, the WHO chief revealed.
Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever that was first discovered in Africa in the 1970s. It is harboured mainly in wild animals, particularly fruit bats.
The dense tropical forests of the DRC serve as a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which can lead to body aches, diarrhoea, fever, and impaired kidney and liver function. It can persist in survivors’ bodies, sometimes re-emerging years later.
Between 2014 and 2016, three countries in West Africa – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – experienced the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, with the disease killing more than 11,000.
