With over 1400 dead across four West African countries, the Congo’s health minister has said that 13 people have been killed in the region including five health workers while 11 people remain sick with 80 contacts being traced.
Reports suggest that eight samples were taken from Djera, located in the Boende region of Congo’s northwest Equateur province. More alarming is the view that the outbreak is not related to that of the West Africa outbreak.
No relation to West Africa outbreak
“This epidemic has nothing to do with the one in West Africa, the experience acquired during the six previous epidemics of Ebola will contribute to the containing of this illness,” Kabange said.
Boende is the region where the World Health Organization said an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis has killed 70 people in recent weeks.
Djera is a collection of villages which is more than 745 miles from Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. It is more than 600 kilometers from the provincial capital, Mbandaka.
Kabange said Djera would be placed under quarantine.
Thus far there have been 2,615 infections and 1,427 deaths have been recorded in four countries — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
This is the seventh outbreak of Ebola in Congo. The disease was first discovered there in 1976.
