New & Third Ebola Case in Democratic Republic of the Congo…
TRANSLATED
A new case of Ebola has been discovered today in Congo, the third in a week.
Congo would normally be declared officially Ebola-free today, but last Friday, after seven weeks without new infections, another case of Ebola surfaced in Beni, in the east of the country.
The 26-year-old patient died from the consequences of the disease. A second patient, a child from Beni, died on Sunday.
a new case of infection has been discovered. It is a 7-year-old girl who has a good chance of surviving the disease, according to the WHO.
source belgian paper HLN ( Dutch)
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WHO
A new case of Ebola virus disease was confirmed today in the city of Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“While not welcome news, this is an event we anticipated. We kept response teams in Beni and other high risk areas for precisely this reason,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
As part of the active Ebola surveillance system in place to respond to this ongoing outbreak in DRC, thousands of alerts are still being investigated every day. An alert is a person who has symptoms that could be due to Ebola, or any death in a high risk area that could have been as result of Ebola.
As with all confirmed cases, efforts are already underway to find everyone who may have been in contact with the person in order to offer them the vaccine and monitor their health status.
As of 10 April 2020, 3456 confirmed and probable cases and 2276 deaths have occurred as a result of the outbreak.
High alert
WHO said 2600 alerts are currently being analysed across the country’s eastern provinces.
Health authorities had already planned to remain on high alert for the next 80 days, and to provide care for Ebola survivors as part of an 18-month programme of regular check-ups.
Efforts are now under way to find all potential contacts of the new cases in order to offer them vaccination and to monitor their health. If no new cases emerge, the DRC will have to wait another 42 days – the equivalent of two incubation periods for the virus – until the Ebola epidemic can be declared over.
The setback underlines the huge challenge posed in eradicating a virus. The problem is made worse by the arrival of the coronavirus in the DRC last month
Triple emergency
In a statement, Kate Moger at humanitarian organisation the International Rescue Committee called the situation a “triple emergency”. “Vulnerable populations facing ongoing humanitarian crises, the spread of COVID-19, and now again potentially a re-emerging Ebola crisis,”
h/t Dangerous Times