Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are rushing to curb a possible Ebola outbreak after a woman near the eastern city of Butembo died of the virus.
The woman showed symptoms in the city of Biena, North Kivu, on February 1. She died two days later at the hospital in Butembo. She was married to a man who contracted the virus in a previous outbreak.
“It was a farmer, the wife of an Ebola survivor, who showed typical signs of the disease on February 1,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo told state television RTNC.
According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the virus can live in the semen of male survivors for more than three years.
‘The provincial response team is already working hard. It will be supported by the national response team that will visit Butembo soon, ”reads the statement from the Ministry of Health.
The announcement marks the beginning of Congo’s twelfth Ebola outbreak since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976, more than double any other country.
The symptoms are severe: high fever and muscle aches, followed by vomiting and diarrhea, skin rashes, kidney and liver failure, internal and external bleeding.
It comes three months after the Congo announced the end of its eleventh outbreak, hundreds of miles west, killing 130 people and killing 55.
The widespread use of Ebola vaccines, which have been administered to more than 40,000 people, has helped combat the disease.
The outbreak in the west of the country overlapped with an earlier one in the east that began in 2018 and ended in June. It killed more than 2,200 people, the second most in the history of the disease. This has been exacerbated by unprecedented challenges, including entrenched conflict between armed groups, the world’s largest measles epidemic, and the spread of Covid.
The rise of more cases could hamper efforts to wipe out Covid-19, which infected 23,600 people and killed 681 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A vaccination campaign is expected to begin in the first half of this year.
“While there is hope that this early identification of an infection can help prevent this outbreak quickly, the outbreaks of Ebola and Covid-19 have stretched the Congo’s health systems to the extreme, and this could put increasing strain. on an already inflamed system, ”says Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba in Canada, who is researching survivors of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in the West. -Africa, the deadliest ever.
Congo’s equatorial forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with body fluids such as blood, vomit and semen.
The World Health Organization said in a statement on Sunday that it was not uncommon for sporadic cases to occur after a major outbreak, and that previous Ebola reactions have made it easier to deal with.
“The expertise and capacity of local health teams has been critical in locating this new Ebola case and paving the way for a timely response,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director for Africa at the WHO. The WHO is investigating the matter and trying to identify the virus strain to determine the link with the previous outbreak.
Congo has suffered more than a quarter of a century of conflict and mistrust of government health workers and other outsiders is high in eastern Congo. Residents in Butembo are already asking why it has taken four days since the woman was tested to announce the results.
“It’s frustrating because the contacts will move and it’s going to be hard to find,” said Vianey Kasondoli, a resident of Butembo.
“The government and the Ministry of Health must suppress the disease as soon as possible.”
The average death toll from Ebola is around 50%, but for some epidemics it could rise to 90%, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus that causes Ebola is believed to occur in bats.