The Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) has declared a new Ebola outbreak in the province of Kasai, marking the 16th outbreak of the country’s mortal virus since it was first discovered in 1976.
The Minister of Health, Roger Kamba, announced the development at a press conference in Kinshasa on Thursday, confirming that the Zaire of the virus strain has resurfaced in the Bulape health zone.
He said that so far there have been 28 suspicious cases, including 15 deaths, but warned that the figures remain provisional as the investigations continue.
According to the Ministry of Health, the case of the index was a 34 -year -old pregnant woman who entered the Bulape General Reference Hospital on August 20 with fever, hemorrhage, bloody vomiting and severe fatigue. She died five days after multiple organic insufficiency.
The RDC fought for the last time in Ebola in September 2022, when a single case was confirmed in the province of North Kivu. The genetic tests then linked that case with the 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Iruri, which killed almost 2,300 people.
Ebola, first identified in the RDC in 1976, near the Ebola River, is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that causes symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea and in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
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