Ebola Reaches Congo's Sud-Ubangi Province After Patient Traveled Through Rwanda And Uganda
The man died in Gwaka in the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi after testing positive for the Bundibugyo strain of ebolavirus, said Jean-Jacques Mbungani, a former Congolese health minister and national lawmaker. Provincial authorities declared an Ebola outbreak Thursday after the case was confirmed by Congo's National Institute of Biomedical Research, local news outlet Identité News and Xinhua reported.
The man had left Kamanyola in South Kivu and traveled over about three weeks through Rwanda and Uganda before returning to Congo and passing through Aru, Bunia, Kisangani, Bumba, Lisala and Akula on his way to Gwaka, Mbungani said in a social media post Thursday. The journey included river travel and potentially exposed numerous people, he said.
The case extends an outbreak previously confined to an area roughly the size of the UK and raises fresh concerns about the virus spreading along Congo's heavily traveled transport corridors. Ebola can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, leading to dehydration, shock and multi-organ failure. Almost half of confirmed cases in the outbreak have been fatal.
Congo had recorded 6,942 confirmed infections and 3,349 deaths through Wednesday. The epidemic had reached 61 health zones across six provinces before the Sud-Ubangi case was confirmed.
Transmission has been easing in several hotspots in Ituri, the original epicenter, while accelerating in North Kivu, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told media Thursday.
North Kivu accounted for 46 of the 99 new infections reported Wednesday, almost matching Ituri's 47, according to Congo's National Institute for Public Health. Ebola treatment facilities in North Kivu were operating at 132% of available bed capacity, the institute said in a report Thursday.
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