At least 131 people have died and over 500 suspected infections have been reported in the latest Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, according to the country’s health ministry. The head of the World Health Organization has expressed concern over the “scale and speed of the epidemic”.
The virus spread undetected for at least a few weeks since the first person died of the virus, health experts and aid workers said, and the delayed response is now complicating efforts to curb the outbreak. Congo’s health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba, said 513 suspected cases and 131 deaths have been recorded. However, he stressed “these are suspected deaths, and investigations are underway to determine which ones are actually linked to the disease.” Only yesterday (May 18), officials reported 300 suspected cases, making a sharp increase.
The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he is “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic” and the UN health agency will convene its emergency committee later today, March 19.
He said the emergence of cases in urban areas, the deaths of healthcare workers, significant population movement in the area and a lack of vaccines and therapeutics are the main reasons for concern “for further spread and further deaths”.
The new outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo version of the virus, this strain has no approved therapeutics or vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Monday the patient had tested positive while in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A CDC official told reporters that the American developed symptoms over the weekend and was tested late Sunday.
Asked by a reporter whether he is concerned about the virus, Mr Trump responded: “[I] certainly am.
“I think that it’s been confined right now to Africa, but its something that has had a breakout.”
Anyone with a US passport who has been in Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the last three weeks is not able to enter the United States of America.
The ban will last for at least 30 days, according to an order issued by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday.
