According to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ministry of Health’s (MoH) update on the North Kivu Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the number of confirmed outbreak cases has now reached 100.

Image/CDC
Image/CDC

In addition, there are another 31 probable cases are reported. Of the 100 confirmed, 58 died, 35 are cured  and 7 are hospitalized.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, held a press conference in Kinshasa this Saturday, September 8, 2018 to take stock of the first month of the response to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the Northern Province -Kivu.

Here are the key points of the press conference:

  • The process of genetic sequencing of the virus by the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) confirmed that the strains of the virus responsible for the two epidemics declared this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo are different although both belong to the species Ebola Zaire.
  • The spread of the virus has been brought under control in Mangina, which is the epicenter of the current epidemic. However, the response efforts were slowed down by the community resistance center in the Ndindi district of Beni, which recorded 71% (17/24) of the last confirmed cases. The last confirmed cases in the neighboring areas of Butembo and Masereka are related to these cases of resistance in Beni who refused follow-up contacts and vaccination.
  • Community resistance forced the coordination of the response to review its strategy in the city of Beni by directly involving community leaders, meeting in local coordination. This strategy paid off and community leaders convinced the family to cooperate with the health authorities. Members of this family, who are considered contacts, finally agreed to be vaccinated.
  • The security situation in North Kivu province remains worrying, but so far it has not prevented the response teams from doing their job and reaching the areas affected by the epidemic.
  • Regarding medical management, 26 patients were treated with mAb 114, Zmapp or Remdesivir. Of these 26 patients, 15 are cured and have been discharged from the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC), 6 have died and 5 are hospitalized.

The surveillance teams continue to trace the contacts of the last confirmed cases in the health zones of Butembo, Masereka and Kalunguta. A total of 5,156 contacts have been recorded in the 7 health zones affected since August 17, 2018.

Since the start of vaccination August 8, 2018,  7 ,069 people were vaccinated , including 3,435 in Mabalako, 2130 in Beni, in 1117 Mandima Oicha 121 to 107 in Butembo, Katwa 70, 70 and 19 to Masereka Kinshasa (medical staff to deploy).

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