In the midst of the Corona pandemic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has to face another setback in the fight against the Ebola virus: the Central African state announced a new Ebola outbreak in the northwest of the country – just a few weeks before it was hoped that the epidemic would officially end across the country to be able to.
Health minister Eteni Longondo said on Monday that four people had already died of Ebola in the city of Mbandaka. “We will send you the vaccine and the medicine very quickly,” the minister announced. Mbandaka, the capital of the province of Equateur, is a traffic junction on the Congo River with more than one million inhabitants. The virus had already occurred in the province. “They know how to react,” said Longondo, referring to the local health authorities.
The epicenter of the Ebola epidemic in the Congo is the east of the country. Since the outbreak in August 2018, more than 2,200 people have died from the viral disease. In April the epidemic was nearing its end – until another case occurred. It is the tenth Ebola epidemic in the country. Containment had been hampered by the militias fighting in the region.
The Ebola virus was first registered in 1976 in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is named after a river there. The sufferers suffer from fever, muscle pain, diarrhea as well as internal bleeding and finally lethal organ failure.
The crisis-ridden country is fighting Ebola as well as the new corona virus. So far, the authorities have registered more than 3,100 infections and 72 deaths.
Source: Apa / Ag.
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