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WHO sounds regional warning over Ebola outbreaks in Congo, Guinea

cde.news desk 15 February 2021, 18:40 · 1 min read

epa08891329 (20/39) Rachel Rukwati suits up in PPE to enter a high-risk treatment zone, at the peak of the Ebola crisis, at a health centre in Beni, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, 04 May 2019. Rachel was a health worker attached to the Ebola response and has first-hand experience of combating an unfamiliar virus. 'In the Ebola response I was a nurse, I took care of ill people, confirmed, and unconfirmed cases when they were at the CTE. In fact, the time we were entering the high-risk zone, we used to get fear, that fear was pushing us to leave the high-risk zone quickly. And when we wore the PPE costume or the protected material we were feeling muffled, then when you leave, you felt at ease because you return to your familiar feeling, compared to how you just felt breathing. The fear I had, was that I could get contaminated as a nurse. When I went to treatment zones I had fear. Since I left the response, I feel that I haven?t recovered my health as it was before? the feeling we used to get in the treatment centers, we sense there are some things we lost. As coronavirus spreads, to the world, from myself as a health worker from Beni, and the Ebola response; I would tell them that when they notice the virus in their town, they should first accept it like a disease, not like politics, they will not be able to fight it like that. When you react to a disease, you will overcome it, using measures and precautions.' EPA-EFE/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham ATTENTION EDITORS / MANDATORY CREDIT : This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center -- For the full PHOTO ESSAY text please see Advisory Notice epa...

GENEVA, Feb 15 (Reuters) – An outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea poses a regional risk that requires exceptional vigilance, a senior World Health Organisation official said on Monday.

Congo has confirmed four cases of Ebola since a resurgence of the virus was announced on Feb. 7 in Butembo, the epicentre of a previous outbreak that was declared over last June.

An Ebola vaccination campaign has begun in Butembo, in eastern DRC, the WHO said in a tweet on Monday. Separately, the West African country of Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday, with seven confirmed cases and three deaths.

“We have to be exceptionally vigilant, highly alert”, Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, told a news briefing.

“This disease (Ebola) represents a regional risk”

The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through contact with body fluids.

(Reporting by John Revill, John Miller, Michael Shields in Zurich, Kate Kelland in London, Editing by William Maclean)

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WHO sounds regional warning over Ebola outbreaks in Congo, Guinea

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