Ebola spreads to new province in DR Congo

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has spread to the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi after a case was confirmed, local authorities said on Thursday, reported Xinhua.

Sud-Ubangi’s acting governor Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe said in a statement that laboratory tests confirmed Bundibugyo ebolavirus in a sample, prompting authorities to declare an outbreak in the province.

Sud-Ubangi does not border any of the six provinces where confirmed Ebola cases had previously been reported, namely Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele.

Authorities have not disclosed the source of the infection or any known epidemiological link to the existing outbreak.

Galekwa said authorities will continue to strengthen surveillance, ensure treatment of patients and work to interrupt chains of transmission.

According to the latest official figures, the DRC had recorded 6,843 confirmed Ebola cases as of Sept 8, including 3,310 deaths and 1,611 recoveries, with the case fatality rate standing at 48.4%.

The current outbreak, declared in May, has become the country’s largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic on record and the second-largest globally, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.