Four new cases of Ebola virus have been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry said, as authorities prepare to deploy an experimental treatment. Reuters Africa reports that the latest confirmed cases near the town of Mangina in Congo’s North Kivu province bring the total for the current outbreak to 21.
Two more people – one near Mangina and another in the city of Beni – died of Ebola, the ministry said. In all, the haemorrhagic fever is believed to have killed 38 people, although several of these cases have not been confirmed.
The report says that authorities have begun vaccinating health workers and people who had contact with confirmed cases. The experimental vaccine, manufactured by Merck, proved effective against an outbreak in western Congo that ended late last month.
Officials are also ready to use an experimental treatment called mAB114 on Ebola patients for the first time, Steve Ahuka, a virologist at the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in the capital Kinshasa, said in the report. The treatment was developed in the US using the antibodies of the survivor of an Ebola outbreak in the western Congolese city of Kikwit in 1995 and was 100% effective when tested on monkeys.
“It’s experimental. So, we are following the protocol. It has been submitted to the ethical committee and the ethical committee gave its okay,” Ahuka said, adding it could be used within days. He said other experimental treatments, including ZMapp, a similar antibody drug made by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals in San Diego, could also be used.
The report says Ebola killed more than 11,000 people during the largest-ever outbreak in West Africa from 2013-16. Authorities in Congo, which has experienced 10 outbreaks since 1976, have been more successful in containing it.
But the current flare-up poses fresh challenges as it is in a part of Congo stalked by myriad militia groups that regularly battle one another and kill and kidnap civilians.
The report says so far, however, the disease has not touched so-called “red zones” where security risks would severely limit access for health workers.
DRC's health ministry says the deadly Ebola outbreak has spread into Ituri province as a vaccination campaign in neighbouring North Kivu province continues in the country's northeast.
News24 reports that the ministry is reporting 57 cases of haemorrhagic fever, 30 of them confirmed as Ebola and 27 listed as probable. Of 41 reported deaths, 14 have been confirmed as Ebola.
The ministry said that a man who was treated for a heart attack in Mangina, where the outbreak was declared 1 August, returned home to Mandima in Ituri province just across the border. He has since died and tests confirm he had Ebola.
Highlighting the dangers in containing an Ebola outbreak in a war zone, suspected rebels killed seven people in north-eastern DRC and sent residents fleeing, says a Polity report.
Global health officials have warned that combating this virus outbreak in the DRC is complicated by multiple armed groups in the mineral-rich region and a restless population that includes 1m displaced people and scores of refugees leaving for nearby Uganda every week.
[link url="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN1KW06X-OZATP"]Reuters Africa report[/link]
[link url="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/drcs-health-ministry-says-ebola-spreads-to-2nd-province-20180814"]News24 report[/link]
[link url="http://www.polity.org.za/article/seven-killed-in-drc-exacerbating-fight-against-ebola-2018-08-13"]Polity report[/link]