Following the confirmation of one case by regional health officials on Monday night, the Ebola virus is now moving again in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an statement issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.
A 46-year-old woman from the eastern region of North Kivu whose samples proved positive after her death on August 15th helped to identify the case.
According to WHO, a third Ebola case has been found in northwest DRC.
The longest and greatest epidemic in the country, in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces, from 2018 to 2020, was genetically related to the case, according to the release. According to scientists, the virus can persist in the body fluids and central nervous systems of survivors and flare up years later.
Despite only being extremely contagious through direct touch, Ebola is an intimate disease.
It begins by infecting families before spreading through communities, usually through so-called “super-spreaders,” or the 20% of cases that infect 80% of the population.
Ebola victims’ individual decisions frequently have a massive impact on the chain of transmission.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, noted in the statement that “Ebola resurgences are occurring with higher regularity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is concerned about them.”
Following the confirmation of one case in the country’s eastern region of Kivu, health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo proclaimed a resurgence of Ebola late Friday night.
However, she expressed faith in the local health authorities, saying they would stop the flare-up and contain the infection as they have in the past.
Two hundred immunizations will be delivered to the region this week to start a vaccination campaign to stop the spread, according to the statement.
Contact tracing and tracking are also in progress.
The outbreak was the DRC’s longest and worst encounter with Ebola, affecting more than 2,000 patients and accounting for two-thirds of occurrences. Since the West African epidemic, which claimed over 11,000 lives between 2013 and 2016, that outbreak was the worst anywhere.
“It is concerning that Ebola resurgences are occurring more frequently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa, “health authorities in North Kivu have effectively contained many Ebola flare-ups and building on this expertise will no doubt bring this one under control fastly
The immunisation history of the dead woman is still being determined by health officials, it continued.
According to the statement, at least 131 contacts of the woman have been identified, including 60 front-line healthcare providers, 59 of whom have received the Ebola vaccine.
The Ebola virus, which causes fever, pains, and diarrhoea, has its natural home in the deep tropical forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since 1976, there have been 14 outbreaks in the nation. With over 3,500 total cases, the outbreak in the east from 2018 to 2020 was the second-largest one ever seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
