Ebola spreads to more cities in Congo

Oly Ilunga, Congo’s health minister, says Ebola has spread to a city, the capital of Equateur province, a worrying shift in the new outbreak in the northwest.

He  said two suspected cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported in the Wangata health zones, which includes Mbandaka city, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Bikoro, the rural area where the outbreak began.

He said one sample proved positive for the deadly Ebola virus, bringing to three the number of confirmed Ebola cases in three health zones.

Ilunga said Congo now is entering an urban phase of the outbreak, with higher spread potential.

He added that epidemiologists are working to identify additional contacts to the 500 already identified.

Congo has reported 23 deaths among the 42 suspected, probable and confirmed cases.

It is Congo’s ninth known outbreak of Ebola since 1976, when the deadly viral disease was first identified in then-Zaire by a Belgian-led team.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) said lab tests in the DRC confirmed the presence of Ebola virus in two out of five samples collected from patients.

In a statement, WHO said it is working closely with the government of the DRC to rapidly scale up its operations and mobilise health partners, using the model of a successful response to a similar outbreak in 2017.

It said it had released $1 million (840,000 euros) from an emergency contingency fund, set up a coordination group and deployed more than 50 experts to work with the DRC government and health agencies.