DR Congo

New Ebola case confirmed in northwestern Congo

cde.news desk 23 April 2022, 07:15 · 1 min read

epa04739380 (FILE) A file picture dated 22 March 2015 shows a Liberian man walking pass an ebola awareness painting on a wall in downtown Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia is declared free from Ebola on 09 April 2015 after 42 days without a new case, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres reported, but urged vigilance until the worst-ever recorded outbreak of the virus is extinguished in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone. The last patient in Liberia died on 27 March 2015, and by 09 April 2015 the nation reaches the official World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 42 days without a new Ebola case. A total of 10,980 people have been killed and more than 26,500 people were infected by Ebola disease since the outbreak erupted in a remote area of Guinea in December 2013, according to WHO. EPA/AHMED JALLANZO

KINSHASA, April 23 (Reuters) – A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, the National Institute of Biomedical Research said on Saturday, four months after the end of the country’s last outbreak.

The case was detected in the city of Mbandaka, capital of Congo’s Equateur province, said the institute. A health ministry spokesperson also confirmed the discovery.

Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2,300 people, the second highest toll recorded in the history of the hemorrhagic fever.

The last outbreak, also in the east, infected 11 people between October and December and killed six of them.

Photo – EPA/AHMED JALLANZO