The World Health Organisation (WHO) has named Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak as the second largest in history, only behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago.
WHO emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, called it “a sad toll” on 29 November, as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and 47 probable ones.
Attacks by rebel groups and open hostility by some wary locals have posed serious challenges that Ebola workers say they have never faced before. Many of these workers venture out on critical virus containment work only with the accompaniment of UN peacekeepers while gunfire echoes daily.
Salama in November predicted that the outbreak in northeastern Congo will last at least another six months before it can be contained.
Earlier in May 2018, the WHO had declared Congo as facing a ‘very high’ public health risk from Ebola, raising its assessment from ‘high’ previously.
The reassessment had come after the first confirmed case in Mbandaka, a city of around 1.5 million in the northwest. Previous reports of the disease had all been in remote areas where Ebola would have more easily contained.
The confirmed case in Mbandaka, a large urban centre located on major national and international river, road and domestic air routes, increases the risk of spread within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to neighbouring countries.World Health Organisation
WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama had told reporters on that the risk assessment was being reviewed.
Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency. We still dispose of the well trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics.Statement by the Health Ministry
Before the outbreak was confirmed, local health officials had reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro. 17 of them had died later.
What is Ebola?
Ebola is caused by a virus which causes severe and fatal internal bleeding in humans, often leading to death. As per WHO, the average fatality rate of ebola is 50%.
Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as it infects other animals it shares trees with such as monkeys. It often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.
The initial symptoms of the infection could be:
- sudden fever
- fatigue
- headache
- severe muscle pain
These are followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, symptoms of kidney and liver failure and bleeding (internal or external).
Currently, there is no proven cure for this disease but certain symptoms are treated with intravenous (IV) or oral fluids.
In 2014 in India, a 26-year old man’s semen sample had shown traced of the virus. The man, who was travelling from Liberia, was kept in isolation at the Airport Health Organisation Quarantine Centre in Delhi.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)