Health officials have declared an Ebola outbreak in a province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization announced on Thursday, with 28 suspected cases and at least 15 deaths.
The deadly virus has claimed thousands of lives across 15 outbreaks in the country in Central Africa since the disease was first identified in 1976. The latest presence of Ebola was confirmed by samples tested on Wednesday by the Congolese health authorities. Some of the deaths include health workers, officials say.
The outbreak was declared in the south-central province of Kasai that borders Angola. The previous outbreak there was in 2008. The country’s previous Ebola outbreak occurred in 2022, in the northwestern Équateur Province. It lasted about two months.
W.H.O. officials say they believe that the number of Ebola cases this time is likely to rise in the area as transmission continues. A national rapid response team, joined by W.H.O. personnel, has been deployed to the province.
“We’re acting with determination to rapidly halt the spread of the virus and protect communities,” said Dr. Mohamed Janabi, the W.H.O.’s regional director for Africa. “Banking on the country’s longstanding expertise in controlling viral disease outbreaks, we’re working closely with the health authorities to quickly scale up key response measures to end the outbreak as soon as possible.”
Congo has built up a “stockpile of treatments” from previous outbreaks, according to a W.H.O. statement, in addition to 2,000 doses of Ebola vaccines that are being moved to Kasai from Kinshasa, the capital, to protect health workers and prevent the spread of illness.
The Ebola virus kills about half of those it infects, causing fever, fatigue, vomiting and, in some cases, bleeding from the eyes and nose. Billions of dollars have been spent in the global efforts to tackle the disease on the African continent, often in conflict-torn areas where suspicion of medical officials runs rife.
Kasai Province is part of the larger Kasai region, which has experienced ethnic conflict and waves of displacement affecting more than one million people in 2017, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
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