from JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC
KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is deploying additional staff to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following the confirmation of a new case of Ebola.
It is preparing to send medical equipment and supplies to the North Kivu.
UNICEF is also assisting efforts to track and trace all those who came into contact with the victim, a 42-year-old woman.
The UN agency is working closely with local health authorities to support community mobilization, control infection mechanisms and decontamination activities.
Additional UNICEF Communication for Development staff will travel to affected areas to mobilise the community response.
They aim to inform the public of any emergency measures that need to be taken and support the local government’s track and trace network so that people required to receive the Ebola vaccine are informed.
Health authorities confirmed the new case is the wife of an Ebola survivor.
She went to the Biena health centre, 90km south-west of Butembo, on February 1 with symptoms of Ebola.
The woman was tested and then transferred to the Matanda Hospital in Butembo where she died on February 3.
North Kivu, Ituri and South Kivu provinces were hit by the world’s second-deadliest outbreak of Ebola in August 2018.
The tenth in outbreak of the virus in DRC, it lasted almost two years months and killed 2 287 people.
The virus infected 3 470, with children comprising about 28 percent of all cases.
– CAJ News