The Democratic Republic of the Congo announced on Sunday the “resurgence” of the Ebola virus disease in the east of the country, after the death of a woman from this disease, three months after the declaration of the end of an epidemic previous.
There is a “resurgence of the Ebola virus in eastern DRC,” Congolese Minister of Health Eteni Longondo told state television RTNC.
He said that “another episode of Ebola virus disease” had been located in the Biena health zone in North Kivu.
“This is a farmer, wife of an Ebola virus disease survivor, who presented, dated 1er February, the typical signs of this very contagious disease ”, added the Minister.
She died on February 3 and analysis of her blood sample taken before her death yielded a positive result for the Ebola virus, the health ministry said in a statement.
This new case was recorded after the announcement, on November 18, 2020, of the official end of the eleventh epidemic of the Ebola virus disease in the province of Equateur which caused the death of 55 people out of 130 identified cases.
It was on October 16, 2020 that the last Ebola patient was declared cured in this Congolese province.
Identified in 1976 by Peter Piot and an international team, including the Congolese professor Muyembe, the Ebola virus is transmitted to humans by infected animals.
Human transmission occurs through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms of fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea.
The tenth Ebola epidemic, the deadliest in the DRC, declared on 1er August 2018 in the east of the country and whose declaration of its end came on June 25, 2020, killed 2,287 people for 3,470 cases, according to the Congolese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Since the great 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa (11,000 dead), and the export of a few cases to the West via humanitarian workers, the WHO fears with each outbreak of Ebola a spread of the virus in the world . The UN agency had also elevated the previous epidemic in the East to the rank of international health emergency.
The DRC is also facing the COVID-19 epidemic with 23,599 cases and 681 deaths.