by Staff writer
Another person has died in Congo of a confirmed case of Ebola, bringing the number of fatalities from the latest outbreak to 12, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday.
The death happened in Iboko, a rural area in northwestern Equateur province, the health ministry said in a statement.
There are also four new suspected cases in the province, the statement reported.
Congo now has 35 confirmed Ebola cases.
Health workers have identified people who have been in contact with the patients in the confirmed Ebola cases.
Congolese Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga flew by helicopter to Bikoro and Iboko on Saturday to see the deployment of health workers who will be tracing people who have been in contact with Ebola cases and inoculating them with a new experimental vaccine. The vaccination campaign in the two rural areas is set to begin Monday.
The vaccination campaign is already underway in Mbandaka, where four Ebola cases have been confirmed.
About 100 health workers have been vaccinated there as front-line workers face high risk from the virus, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead.
This is Congo’s ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding. The virus can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases, depending on the strain.
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Source: The Associated Press
This is sad.