New Delhi (NVI): The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has announced resurgence of Ebola in the Butembo town after a woman died of the virus, where a previous outbreak was declared over in June last year.
According to a statement, the new cases of Ebola was reported in a woman patient who had visited a local health centre on February 1 in the town of Butembo with Ebola-like symptoms, confirmed the Butembo branch of the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).
The patient, who has died on February 3, was the wife of an Ebola survivor in the previous outbreak.
In a official statement, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that samples of the woman have been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR) for genome sequencing and to identify the strain of the virus and to establish whether there is any link to the previous outbreak.
WHO also said that the new case of Ebola identified in Butembo city in North Kivu Province was one of the epicentres of the previous outbreak in eastern DRC.
The UN agency further said the local authorities are leading the response with help of the National Health Ministry and WHO epidemiologists.
It added that during the previous outbreak of the disease enormous local capacity was built, which is helping authorities to lead the response.
“The expertise and capacity of local health teams has been critical in detecting this new Ebola case and paving the way for a timely response,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“WHO is providing support to local and national health authorities to quickly trace, identify and treat the contacts to curtail the further spread of the virus,” Moeti added.
The organization also informed that more than 70 contacts have been identified amid a WHO investigation, the sites visited by patient are being disinfected.
According to the reports, the Democratic Republic of Congo was declared Ebola-free in November last year after no new cases were reported in more than 48 days. The outbreak claimed 55 lives out of 130 cases in nearly six months.
The Ebola virus was first identified in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Earlier in 2018, the DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak which lasted for nearly two years was the second largest in the world and by the time it ended there were 3,481 cases, 2,299 deaths and 1,162 survivors, the WHO said.
-RJV
