By NewsDesk @bactiman63
On 8 October 2021, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene, and Prevention (MoH) reported a confirmed death of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Beni health zone, North Kivu province. This comes barely five months after the end of the most recent outbreak that was detected in the same province.
The index case is a 3-year-old male, child who died on 6 October in a local health facility after presenting with hemorrhagic symptoms. Samples collected, tested positive for Ebola virus at the Goma reference laboratory.
“We see this with great concern as we are going to fight against multiple disease outbreaks in DRC, including, cholera, monkeypox, yellow fever, meningitis and EVD, on top of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic” said Dr John Nkengasong, the Director of Africa CDC.
Health teams decontaminated the affected health facility and 100 contacts have so far been identified. The provincial and zonal rapid response team have deployed to the affected area to conduct active case finding and identify additional contacts.
In response to this new EVD case, the African Union Commission (AUC) has been informed of the outbreak and is ready to offer a comprehensive support of all AU organs. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has repurposed five (5) of the existing Africa CDC emergency response team of experts in Goma and Kinshasa to support the ongoing EVD response effort of the Government; and is working on deployment of additional technical assistance from the Headquarter. AUC/Africa CDC will continue to closely monitor the situation and will work with the Government of DRC to deploy more emergency response support team of experts, supplies and equipment as needed. Africa CDC will work closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to coordinate and align emergency response activities across the region.
Subscribe to Outbreak News TV on YouTube
- DRC: 90 young children die from unknown illness since the end of August in Kwilu
- Psittacosis outbreak in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province
- Bangladesh dengue fever tally tops 20,000
- Pakistan: 5% of blood donors in Sindh were positive for one or more infectious disease
- Pakistan dengue numbers rise as hospital bed shortages are reported
- Los Angeles reports 120 leptospirosis cases in dogs since April
- COVID-19 pandemic led to stark rise in depressive and anxiety disorders globally in 2020
- Portugal achieves 85% complete vaccination, 1st country to reach target
- Japan reports an additional 900 syphilis cases in past month
