New EBOLA Outbreak In Congo: Scientists Prepare For Global Emergency
outbreak of the deadly disease has been reported in Bikoro
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Scientists are preparing for a “public health emergency with international impact" as a new Ebola outbreak claims the lives of 17 people in the northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The outbreak of the deadly disease has been reported in Bikoro, just off the shores of Lake Tumba.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the reports of Ebola cases came from a clinic at Ilkoko Ipponge, located about 30 kilometers from the city and has very limited capabilities to deal with the disease. Ebola
WHO confirmed that the tests taken at laboratories from infected patients have confirmed the presence of Ebola virus.
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The WHO said:
“WHO is working closely with the government of the DRC to rapidly scale up its operations and mobilize health partners, using the model of a successful response to a similar outbreak in 2017.”
The Express reports: The organization added that it had already forked out £738,200 from an emergency contingency fund to deploy and coordinate more than 50 experts to work in the country together with the DRC government and health agencies.
The country’s Health Ministry said: “Twenty-one cases of fever with hemorrhagic indications and 17 deaths.”
This is the ninth known outbreak of the disease in the country since 1976.
The virus, which last year alone killed four people in the country, is notorious for being both highly infectious and extremely lethal.
The latest Ebola outbreak is one of the largest and deadliest in history and the first in West Africa.
The World Health Organization have declared an international health emergency as more than 1,200 people have already died from the virus in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria this year.
Bats are among the animals spreading the disease, passing the microbe on to humans.
Other sources of infections include people’s bodily fluids or those who died from Ebola.
After an incubation period that could last as long as 21 days, the disease develops into symptoms similar to those of the flu, including a high fever, weakness, intense muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat.
The worst outbreak of the disease ever recorder started in December 2013 in southern Guinea and infected two nearby countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300 people out of nearly 29,000 registered cases.
Despite cases have occurred in other parts of the world, 99 percent of the known victims of Ebola was in these three West African countries.
