Ebola cases in DR Congo rise to 74 in latest outbreak

YAOUNDE, Cameroon

At least 74 Ebola virus cases have been recorded in the latest outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization announced Thursday.

So far there are 74 cases, with 70 confirmed and four probable, 32 deaths and 28 recoveries from the 11th Ebola virus outbreak in Mbandaka, Equateur province, the WHO African Region tweeted.

For several months, the DRC has been battling with several diseasing including, Cholera, Ebola, Measles.

Last month the WHO office in the Central African country said that a total of 12,959 people have been vaccinated since the start of the 11th Ebola outbreak in early June.

Around one million people have also been vaccinated against cholera in a five-day campaign that was launched in DRC’s South Kivu province late last month.

The WHO had also expressed concern over the 111th Ebola outbreak. The UN health agency said it deployed over 70 experts in the DRC to support it in its fight against the virus.

The WHO and the DRC government in June declared the country free from the 10th outbreak.

Starting in North Kivu on Aug. 1, 2018, the epidemic was the second-largest outbreak in the world, and particularly challenging as it took place in an active conflict zone. There were 3,470 cases, 2,287 deaths and 1,171 survivors, according to the WHO.

Ebola, a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC, is transmitted to humans from wild animals.

Ebola contingency plan against COVID-19

Meanwhile DRC authorities in Butembo, North Kivu on Wednesday announced that the contingency plan used during the Ebola response in Butembo will also be used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the city which has just recorded its first cases.

“There are certain Ebola achievements that can help us to make a good response to the coronavirus [...] We must make them operational,” Dr. Paluku Lwanza told local daily Actualite.cd.

The DRC has so far recorded 9,253 coronavirus cases, with 212 deaths and 7,821 recoveries, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.