New Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared this Monday a new outbreak of Ebola in Mbandaka, province of Ecuador, northwest, while the epidemic of the disease continues in the northeast of the country. “I can confirm that we have a new Ebola epidemic in Mbandaka”, the capital of the province of Ecuador and an area already affected by Ebola in 2018, the Congolese Health Minister 

Eteni Longondo said at a press conference in Kinshasa.
Samples of suspicious cases sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), in the Congolese capital, have tested positive, stressed the minister. “So I will go there to provide technical assistance to the response team,” added Longondo, quoted by local news portal 7Sur7.

The Governor of Ecuador Bob o Boloko announced this weekend that local tests carried out on the bodies of four people who died on May 18 in the Air Congo district confirmed that it could be Ebola. So far, Congolese authorities have identified six people infected with Ebola, four of whom have died.

"The new Ebola outbreak in Mbandaka represents a challenge, but it's one we are ready to tackle," said the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, on her Twitter account. Moeti said the WHO has worked with the DRC and its partners "over the years to strengthen capacity to respond to outbreaks. With each experience," she said, "we respond faster and more effectively.

Ecuador is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the area in the northeast of the country where an epidemic of the disease is currently being fought since August 1, 2018, when the outbreak was declared only one week after the proclamation of the end of another Ebola outbreak in the northwestern province. That outbreak in Ecuador – the ninth in the country – was declared on May 8, 2018 and, until its end, 54 cases were counted, of which 33 died and 21 survived.

On May 16, the DRC confirmed that the last patient admitted with Ebola in the northeast of the country was discharged and the authorities hope to be able to declare the official end of the outbreak – the tenth in the country – at the end of June, whenever it elapses 42 days without new cases, health sources informed Efe. The discharge of the last hospitalized patient occurred on May 14 in Beni, a Congolese city that has been one of the epicenters of the epidemic that was declared in August 2018.

However, the health authorities must remain vigilant on the ground in the coming weeks in case new cases appear. If, after 42 days from the discharge of this last patient, no new cases are detected, the DRC may declare the official end of the outbreak, according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). As early as April, when the country was only three days away from meeting the required deadline, a new contagion positive forced to postpone the announcement and, since then, the outbreak left four dead.

In total, this epidemic – the worst in the history of the DRC and the second most serious worldwide after the one that devastated West Africa 2014 to 201 6- has left 3,462 cases, with 2,279 deaths, according to WHO data until last May 21.
The northeast outbreak has affected three provinces -Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu-, in which its control has been undermined by the refusal of some communities to receive treatment and the great insecurity in the area, where dozens of armed groups operate.

The disease, discovered precisely in the DRC in 1976 – then called Zaire – became It transmits by direct contact with the blood and body fluids of infected people or animals. This fever causes severe bleeding and can reach a mortality rate of 90%. Its first symptoms are sudden and high fever, severe weakness and muscle, headache, and sore throat, plus vomiting.

The worst known Ebola epidemic was declared in March 2014, with the first cases dating back to December 2013 in Guinea Conakry, from where it spread to Sierra Lioness and Liberia.The WHO marked the end of that epidemic in January 2016, after registering 11,300 deaths and more than 28,500 cases, although the UN agency has admitted that these figures may be conservative.