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Tag: Ebola

  • Ebola ’emergency status’ extended in DR Congo

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has extended by three months the designation of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a global health emergency.

    WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said the potential remained for a much larger epidemic as long as there was a single case of the disease in an area as insecure as eastern DR Congo.

    The outbreak was declared a global health emergency in July 2019 after a patient died in the provincial capital Goma – the first case in a major city.

    More than 2,300 people have died since the outbreak began in 2018.

    Source: bbc.com

  • WHO sounds alarm on Ebola due to Congo insecurity

    About 360 people are at potential risk of Ebola after contact with an infected person in eastern Congo yet many of them are out of reach due to clashes and insecurity, the World Health Organization said on Friday (November 22).

    Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, urged the government and all sides to enable aid workers to access several areas where the deadly virus may be spreading.

    Islamist militiamen killed at least 19 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, stepping up attacks on civilians in response to a military campaign against them in border areas with Uganda, local officials said on Wednesday.

    Read:Uganda to send back Congolese Ebola patient as deaths exceed 2,000

    The assailants, who the officials said belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, burned down a Catholic church near the city of Oicha.

    Ryan said that although only 7 cases of Ebola were recorded in the past week, it was unable to stamp out the deadly virus due to insecurity.

    “The difficulty we collectively face at the moment is just when we need that unlimited and unfettered access to communities we have lost that access in key areas,” he told a news briefing.

    Spread of the virus

    “This is a very dangerous and alarming development,” he said.

    Read:Measles kills nearly 5,000 in DR Congo

    A male driver died of Ebola in Oicha, North Kivu province, after visiting three health care centres, Ryan said, adding that many other drivers had handled the body at the funeral.

    “That one case has generated over 360 contacts which is a large number of contacts for any case. We know that person was highly infectious at the moment of death. That is why we are so concerned,” Ryan said.

    At least 62 of the 200 contacts in Oicha were deemed at “extreme high risk”, he said, but aid workers had only located 19 of them. About 159 had fled to Kalunguta where most were being monitored.

    There have been 3,298 Ebola cases including 2,195 deaths since the outbreak was declared in August 2018, Ryan said.

    “By the time this Ebola outbreak in Congo is over the international community will probably have spent $1 billion.”

    Source: africanews.com

  • Ebola survivors ‘face possible kidney damage’

    A study of people who survived the Ebola virus in Guinea found out that their mortality rate remained severe within a year of leaving hospital – and faced possible kidney damage.

    Researchers, writing in the Lancet, surveyed more than 1,100 survivors of the West African outbreak earlier this decade.

    Read:Uganda to send back Congolese Ebola patient as deaths exceed 2,000

    Fifty-nine died within about one year of leaving Ebola treatment units, a mortality risk five times that of the general Guinean population.

    The cause of death for 62% of those who died within a year was tentatively attributed to kidney failure.

    The study indicated that death rates were higher among those who had stayed in hospital for longer.

    Read:Uganda launches new Ebola vaccine trial

    The researchers said that the findings showed an urgent need for more investigation into the role of renal failure in late deaths after recovering from Ebola.

    With the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo inflicting a higher death rate among those infected, the team hope their work can enable help to be better targeted.

    Source: bbc.com