Geneva: Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case was confirmed in Mbandaka, a city in the north-western Equateur Province of DRC, over the weekend.
A second case was confirmed yesterday, in a relative of the first patient and both patients have died. World Health Organization (WHO) said it is supporting the government to scale up testing, contact tracing and public health measures.
This is the third EVD outbreak in Equateur province and the sixth in the country since 2018. Previous outbreaks in Equateur province occurred in 2020 and 2018, with 130 and 54 confirmed and probable cases recorded, respectively.
It was on April 23, 2022, that the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) after laboratory confirmation of a case, a 31-year-old male from Mbandaka. a city of approximately 1.2 million people in the north-western Equateur province.
The case had symptoms onset on April 5, with fever and headache, and was under home treatment with antimalarial drugs and antibiotics before being admitted to two health facilities between April 16 and 21, where infection prevention and control (IPC) measures were inadequate. Given the persistence of symptoms and appearance of haemorrhagic signs on April 21, he was admitted to the General Referral Hospital in Wangata. He died on 21 April after which a safe and dignified burial was conducted. A blood sample taken by the provincial laboratory in Mbandaka tested positive for the Ebola virus by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on April 21, and an oral swab analysed on April 22 also tested positive for Ebola virus. For confirmation, blood samples and oral swabs were sent to the reference laboratory, the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa and tested positive for the Ebola virus by RT-PCR.
On April 25, health authorities confirmed a second EVD case, a 25-year-old woman from Mbandaka who was a family member of the first case. She developed symptoms on April 13 and was treated at home for five days. While symptomatic, she visited a prayer house, a health centre, a pharmacy and a nurse’s home. She died on 25 April and a safe and dignified burial was performed on the same day.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that stockpiles of Ebola vaccines in Goma and Kinshasa are now being transported to Mbandaka so that vaccination can start.
“The government and people of the DRC have a great deal of experience stopping Ebola outbreaks and WHO will support them to do whatever is needed,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
