By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

In a follow-up on the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), three additional cases were confirmed, including one death, bringing the outbreak total to 5 confirmed cases with 3 deaths.

“We confirmed the existence of these three cases in the health area of ​​the Beni territory”, according to officials.

Among the three new cases detected are a 32-year-old woman – who began to have symptoms on October 15 – and a 41-year-old man, who was a contact for the third case confirmed, a three-year-old girl who began to experience fever last October 12 and passed away at dawn this Saturday.

The DRC launched the immunization campaign last Wednesday. About a thousand doses of vaccine have been deployed in North Kivu province along with other pharmaceuticals to support the response.

To date, more than 220 contact cases have been identified since the reappearance of the disease on October 8.

“The initial genomic sequencing indicates that the new cases probably represent a new outbreak of the Ebola epidemic of 2018-2020, most likely transmitted by a persistently infected survivor or by a survivor who experienced a relapse,” said WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti.

The epidemic that struck the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri between 2018 and 2020 was the tenth and the worst in the country’s history and caused 2,299 deaths, according to the latest data from the agency of the UN.

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