The Democratic Republic of Congo health authorities have declared a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has killed 15 people since the end of August, the health minister said Thursday.
The new outbreak is in central Kasai Province, Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters in the capital Kinshasa.
The last outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African nation was three years ago and killed six people.
Twenty-eight suspected cases have been recorded in Kasai Province, according to provisional figures.
The latest infection, identified in a 34-year-old pregnant woman, raises the country’s suspected case count to 28, with 15 deaths, the Ministry of Health reported on Thursday.
“These figures remain provisional, as investigations are still ongoing,” said Health Minister Roger Kamba at a press conference in the capital Kinshasa.
“It’s the 16th outbreak recorded in our country,” Kamba said.
The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the outbreak has affected the Bulape and Mweka areas of Kasai province, with patients exhibiting typical Ebola symptoms, including fever, vomiting, diarrhea and hemorrhaging.
The DRC has a stockpile of treatments for this viral haemorrhagic fever as well as 2,000 doses of vaccines that will be moved to Kasai from the capital Kinshasa.
READ ALSO: Tinubu orders mandatory health insurance implementation across MDAs
The UN agency said it has sent experts to join the DRC’s own response team to help “rapidly strengthen disease surveillance, treatment and infection prevention and control in health facilities”. It also said it would ship two tonnes of medical and lab supplies to the Central African country.
“We’re acting with determination to rapidly halt the spread of the virus and protect communities,” said Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s regional director for Africa. “Banking on the country’s longstanding expertise in controlling viral disease outbreaks, we’re working closely with the health authorities to quickly scale up key response measures to end the outbreak as soon as possible.”
First identified in 1976 and thought to have crossed over from bats, Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, causing severe bleeding and organ failure.
The deadliest outbreak in the DRC — whose population numbers more than 100 million — killed nearly 2,300 people between 2018 and 2020.
Six strains of Ebola exist.
Health authorities say the Zaire strain — for which there is a vaccine — is the cause of the new outbreak.
“Fortunately we have a vaccine for this Zaire strain but to deploy it we need to ensure the logistics,” Health Minister Kamba said.
Four times the size of France, the DRC has poor infrastructure, with often limited and poorly maintained lines of communication.