Eighty people have died in a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province, the country’s health ministry has said.
Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba said in a statement that samples tested had confirmed eight cases of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus in the health zones of Rwampara, Mongwalu and Bunia.
So far there have been 246 suspected cases of the virus, the ministry said.
The suspected index case was a nurse who died at the Evangelical Medical Centre in Bunia after showing symptoms that included fever, bleeding, vomiting and severe weakness.
The DRC government said it has activated its public health emergency operations centre, strengthened epidemiological and laboratory surveillance, and ordered the rapid deployment of response teams.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement it was convening an urgent meeting with Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and global partners to reinforce cross-border surveillance, preparedness and response efforts.
It said the deaths and suspected cases had been reported mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, while four deaths were reported among laboratory-confirmed cases.
Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, the provincial capital.
The agency said initial findings suggested the presence of a non-Zaire strain of the virus, with sequencing ongoing to further characterise it.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese virologist who co-discovered Ebola and heads the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, told Reuters that all but one of Congo’s 16 previous outbreaks had been caused by the Zaire strain.
The identification of a different variant will complicate the response, he said, as existing treatments and vaccines were developed against the Zaire strain.
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