Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are rushing to contain a possible Ebola outbreak after a woman died of the virus near the city of Butembo.
The woman developed symptoms on February 1 in the city of Biena, North Kivu. She died in the hospital in Butembo two days later. She was married to a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak.
“She was a farmer, the wife of an Ebola survivor, who showed typical signs of the disease on February 1,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo told RTNC state television.
The virus can live in the semen of male survivors for more than three years, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The provincial response team is already working hard. It will be supported by the national response team that will visit Butembo soon, ”said the statement from the Ministry of Health.
The announcement potentially marks the beginning of the twelfth outbreak of Ebola in the Congo since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976, more than double that of any other country.
The symptoms are severe: high fever and muscle pain followed by vomiting and diarrhea, skin rashes, kidney and liver failure, internal and external bleeding.
This comes three months after Congo announced the end of its eleventh outbreak, hundreds of miles away, in the west, which infected 130 people and killed 55.
The widespread use of Ebola vaccines, administered to more than 40,000 people, helped to contain the disease.
This outbreak in the west of the country coincided with a previous outbreak in the east, which began in 2018 and ended in June. It killed more than 2,200 people, the second largest in the history of the disease. It was compounded by unprecedented challenges, including entrenched conflict between armed groups, the world’s largest measles epidemic and the spread of Covid.
The emergence of more cases could complicate efforts to eradicate Covid-19, which has infected 23,600 people and killed 681 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vaccination campaign is scheduled to start in the first half of this year.
“While there is hope that this early identification of an infection can help to contain this outbreak quickly, consecutive outbreaks of Ebola and Covid-19 have pushed Congo’s health systems to the limit and this could put much greater pressure on an already exasperated system ”Said Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor in the department of medical microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba, Canada, who is conducting research on survivors of the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, the deadliest of all
Congo’s equatorial forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with body fluids such as blood, vomit and semen.
In a statement on Sunday, the World Health Organization said it was not uncommon for sporadic cases to occur after a major outbreak and that previous responses to Ebola were already making it easier to deal with.
“The experience and capacity of the local health teams were essential to detect this new case of Ebola and pave the way for a timely response,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. The WHO is investigating the case and trying to identify the strain of the virus to determine its link to the previous outbreak.
Congo has suffered more than a quarter of a century of conflict and distrust of government health workers and other foreigners is high in eastern Congo. Butembo residents are already asking why it took four days since the woman took the test to announce the results.
“It is frustrating because the contacts will have changed and it will be difficult to find them,” said Vianey Kasondoli, a resident of Butembo.
“The government and the health ministry have to contain the disease as quickly as possible.”
The average mortality rate for Ebola is around 50%, but it can reach 90% in some epidemics, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus that causes Ebola is believed to reside in bats.