from JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC
DRC Bureau
KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – THE latest outbreak of the Ebola virus disease has left 15 people dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Health authorities in the Kasai province have declared an outbreak of 28 suspected cases.
Four health workers are among those dead.
“We’re acting with determination to rapidly halt the spread of the virus and protect communities,” said Dr Mohamed Janabi, World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa.
“Banking on the country’s long-standing expertise in controlling viral disease outbreaks, we’re working closely with the health authorities to quickly scale up key response measures to end the outbreak as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, cCase numbers are likely to increase as the transmission is ongoing.
Response and local teams have pledged to work to find the people who may be infected and need to receive care, to ensure everyone is protected as quickly as possible.
DRC has a stockpile of treatments, as well as 2 000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine, effective to protect against this type of Ebola, already prepositioned in Kinshasa that will be quickly moved to Kasai to vaccinate contacts and frontline health workers.
The country’s last outbreak of Ebola affected the north-western Equateur province in April 2022.
In this former Zaire, there have been 15 outbreaks of Ebola since 1976.
– CAJ News