New Ebola outbreak reported in DR Congo near Ugandan border

World Today

FILES-DRCONGO-HEALTH-EBOLAIn this file photo taken on June 1, 2018 health workers operate within an Ebola safety zone in the Health Center in Iyonda, near Mbandaka. (AFP PHOTO / Junior D. KANNAH)

Three are now dead in a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Health officials say at least 13 have contracted the deadly disease. The outbreak is occurring in a conflict zone near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. The World Health Organization says the fighting will make it even more difficult to bring it under control.

CGTN’s Chris Ocamringa has details.

A fresh Ebola outbreak has been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo just a week after a previous outbreak was declared over. Four people have tested positive in Mangina town in the DRC’s North Kivu Province. The town has about 60-thousand people and is just a hundred kilometer from the Ugandan border.

Last month, twenty people died of unidentified hemorrhagic fevers in the area. The Congolese government has dispatched a team of experts to help contain the spread of the disease.

“The Health Ministry has sent a team of doctors to Beni and Mangina,” said Health Minister Oly Illunga. “They are going to try and stop Ebola from spreading. We are determined to contain this latest outbreak.”

International experts who helped end the previous outbreak in northwestern DRC have also been sent to the affected area. The latest outbreak has occurred in an area that’s been rocked by conflict for decades raising security concerns.

According to reports from the World Health Organization, the new outbreak may have been caused by the unsafe burial of a 65-year-old woman in North Kivu province. This is the 10th Ebola outbreak to occur in the DRC.