An Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo, the deadliest in its history, has spread to a seventh province, bordering the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, the governor of South-Ubangi province said on Friday.
The governor’s office in a statement officially declared an outbreak of the highly infectious virus in the northwestern province following analysis on a suspected case.
An Ebola patient died in the province after undertaking a long journey across several provinces, some of which have not so far had cases of the disease, acting governor Jean-Rene Galekwa told reporters on Thursday.
Until now, the outbreak, officially detected in mid-May, had been in six provinces in the country’s conflict-plagued east and northeast.
Armed groups have roamed those regions for decades and the presence of the state is weak, while health infrastructure is largely lacking.
The current outbreak, the 17th to hit the Democratic Republic of Congo, has killed 3,310 people out of 6,843 confirmed cases, according to the latest figures from the Congolese authorities.
The patient who died in South-Ubangi had developed symptoms in the capital of Tshopo province, Kisangani, where Ebola cases have been reported, after having travelled to Rwanda, then Uganda and Ituri province in northeastern DRC, Galekwa said.
He then travelled by boat on the Congo River.
“The route taken both by the patient and by the boat exposes the population” of the provinces of North-Ubangi, Tshopo and Mongala, Galekwa said.
“Thirty-eight people have been identified as having been in contact with the patient and have been placed in quarantine,” he said.
Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure.
The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment. Several treatments and vaccines are being tested.
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