The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has declared its 14th outbreak of the Ebola virus after a confirmed case was reported in Mbandaka, a city in the DRC’s northwestern equatorial province, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
A positive case of the Ebola virus has been reported in the Vangata health zone in the province of Equator, DRC Health Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani confirmed on Saturday.
The patient, a 31-year-old man, began experiencing symptoms on April 5 and, after more than a week of home care, sought treatment at a local health facility. The patient was admitted to the Ebola Intensive Care Center on April 21 but died later that day, the WHO Regional Office for Africa said, adding that investigations into the source of the outbreak were ongoing.
“The weather is not on our side,” said Matshidiso Moetti, WHO’s regional director for Africa.
“The disease has two weeks to go and now we are catching up. “The good news is that the health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have more experience than anyone else in the world in controlling Ebola outbreaks quickly,” Moetti said.
The DRC has been experiencing its fourteenth outbreak of Ebola since 1976. The current outbreak is the sixth since 2018, the most common in the history of Ebola in the country. Previous outbreaks in the Equatorial Province were in 2020 and 2018, with 130 and 54 cases reported, respectively, according to the WHO.
In December 2021, the DRC announced the end of its 13th Ebola epidemic, which confirmed eight cases and three probable ones, including six deaths in the northeastern province of North Kivu.
“Many people in Mbandaka have already been vaccinated against Ebola, which should help reduce the impact of the disease,” said Dr Moetti. “Everyone who was vaccinated during the 2020 epidemic will be revaccinated.
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