Congo is reporting Ebola cases in a northern town, sparking fears that the deadly virus is expanding far beyond West Africa. Two people in Gera town in the Democratic Republic of Congo tested positive for Ebola, a government spokesman said Sunday. A lab and quarantine station have been set up in the town, which is about 750 miles from the capital of Kinshasa. The World Health Organization said that the nation did its own tests, and the U.N. agencys lab is conducting its own confirmation testing that will also determine the strain of the virus found. Congo said its test showed the strain is different from the one that has killed nearly 1,500 people in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. Experts have described the West African outbreak as the worst in the history of the virus. Ebola first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and Congo, and takes its name from a river with the same name in the latter nation. Congo, which is in central Africa, has had six previous outbreaks since the disease appeared on its shores, the World Health Organization said. Africa has been limited to three strains: Bundibugyo, Zaire and Sudan. Though Congo has had the Zaire strain in the past, its unclear whether its the same one in the latest outbreak. WHO said its confirmation testing will likely be done Monday. Last week, 13 people died of a mysterious ailment in the Boende area, but the WHO said at the time that their deaths were a result of a viral hemorrhagic fever of undetermined origin. Ebola is one of the worlds most virulent diseases, and is transmitted through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids of infected people.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:14:36 +0000
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