Ebola case detected in northwestern province far from epicentre, official says
GOMA, Sept 11 - An Ebola case has been detected in a province in the northwestern corner of Democratic Republic of Congo, far from the epicentre of the country's most lethal outbreak on record, an official said on Friday.
β’ The case involves a man who died on Tuesday in the town of Gwaka, according to Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, the acting governor of Sud-Ubangi province where the town is located. He travelled from South Kivu province in eastern Congo through Rwanda and Uganda before re-entering Congo and arriving in Sud-Ubangi, which borders Republic of CongoΒ and Central African Republic.
β’ Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, confirmed on FridayΒ that the man had tested positive for Ebola.
β’ Authorities fear a large number of contacts due to the patient's use of road and river transport, with neighbouring provinces and countries potentially at risk, Jean-Jacques Mbungani, a former health minister and a lawmaker from the area, said in a post on X.
β’ Local transmission has not yet been confirmed in Sud-Ubangi, meaning it has not been added to the list of provinces officially affected by the epidemic, which was first confirmed in mid-May.
β’ The ongoing Ebola outbreak, Congo's 17th, has so far infected 6,942 people, including 3,349 deaths, according to the latest government data. It is the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the outbreak in West Africa that lasted from 2014 to 2016. REUTERS
