WHO: Ebola outbreak confirmed in the Congo

September 11, 2007 · Filed Under World News

The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that five cases of the deadly Ebola virus had been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after dozens of people succumbed to an unidentified illness in recent months.

The five cases of the viral haemorrhagic illness were confirmed in western Kasai in the centre of the vast African country, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists in Geneva.

Ebola causes the patient to bleed under the skin and in severe cases, from the mouth, ears and eyes. The virus, which has no known cure, is highly infectious for those who come into contact with a victim’s body fluids.

The WHO was not in a position to say whether the five people confirmed with Ebola are presently alive or dead, she added.

“The priority for the WHO is to find those who are sick with Ebola, to isolate them and to trace the people with whom they have been in contact,” Chaib said.

WHO teams on the ground will also help families of the deceased to bury their bodies in a secure fashion, she added.

Ebola has killed some 450 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1976, and 1,200 people across the whole of Africa in the same period.

Local authorities said at the end of August that 68 people had died from an unknown illness within the space of four months in western Kasai.

Chaib stressed that another illness other than Ebola could yet be responsible for some of these deaths, possibly the Shigella infectious disease which is less deadly than Ebola.

[AFP]