DRC: Two Ebola cases confirmed

Two Ebola cases have been confirmed in the north-western town of Bikoro, by a health official in the Democratic Republic of Congo told Reuters.

Jean Jacques Muyembe, who works for the DRC’s biological research institute, said there were at least 10 other suspected cases.

These new cases of Ebola occur less than a year after the last epidemic that killed four out of eight people infected.

The Ebola virus is spread over long distances by bats, which can harbour the virus without dying.

They can infect other animals with whom they share trees such as monkeys.

The disease is often spread to humans via contaminated bush meat.

Infected persons suffer from fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

The viral disease is highly lethal with a high mortality rate.

This is the ninth time that the Ebola virus has been reported in the DRC since the discovery of the disease in the 1970s.

The last major epidemic of Ebola caused at least 11,315 people in 2014, mainly in six countries, namely Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the United States and Mali.

Show More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button