On May 18, medical personnel were urgently deployed to Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, where hundreds of suspected cases had been reported. According to the Congo Health Cluster, there have been 105 suspected Ebola deaths and 393 suspected cases across nine health areas in Ituri, of which eight have been confirmed by testing.
Another case has been confirmed in Goma, a major city in North Kivu province. The patient is a woman from Bunia, where her husband died from Ebola.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this a “public health emergency of international importance” due to the risk of cross-border spread, after Uganda recorded two deaths related to the disease.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo variant, a rare strain of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or animals, causing high fever, vomiting, bleeding, and multi-organ failure.
According to the WHO, the average mortality rate of Ebola is around 50%, but in some previous outbreaks it could reach 90%.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Health Minister, Samuel Roger Kamba, led a delegation to Bunia to set up field treatment centers to support overwhelmed hospitals. “This is not a mysterious disease. Report your health status to receive treatment and prevent the spread of the disease,” he said.
The WHO said it had deployed 35 experts and 7 tons of emergency medical supplies to the affected area. However, Anne Ancia, WHO representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that supplies of protective equipment in the capital Kinshasa had run out and the organization was urgently transporting more supplies from Kenya.
The US and Europe are also beginning to step up their responses. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is coordinating the transfer of an American missionary infected with Ebola to Germany for treatment. Six people who had close contact with the patient will also be evacuated.
The CDC stressed that the risk to the U.S. remains low but is sending more experts to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Uganda has suspended all visa services due to concerns about the outbreak. Uganda has also postponed Martyrs' Day, an event that usually attracts thousands of pilgrims from eastern Congo.
Health officials believe the rapid spread of this outbreak was partly due to late detection. The WHO said it received a warning about a strange disease with a high mortality rate in Mongbwalu on May 5, but the virus was only identified as Ebola on May 14 after a series of testing errors.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in Congo since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The 2018-2020 outbreak killed nearly 2,300 people and was the second-largest outbreak in world history.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-gioi/chung-ebola-hiem-chua-co-vaccine-khien-chau-phi-lo-ngai-229347.html
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