"A new epidemic" of Ebola haemorrhagic fever has broken out in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Health Minister Eteni Longondo said on Monday.
Four deaths recorded
"Four people have already died," added the minister during a press conference. The four deaths were recorded in a district of Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province, about 600 km as the crow flies north of the capital Kinshasa. The two cities are connected by the Congo river (about a week of navigation). "The National Biomedical Research Institute (INRB) has just confirmed to me that the samples from Mbandaka are positive for Ebola virus disease," added the minister.
The "response" has begun
"We will send them the vaccine and also the medicines very quickly," he continued, planning to go to the site at the end of the week. The province of Equateur was affected by a previous Ebola epidemic between May and July 2018 (54 cases for 33 dead and 21 survivors). "It is a province which has already experienced the disease. They already have reflexes of what to do. They have already started the response at the local level since yesterday" Sunday, said the minister.
Another epidemic at the other end of the country
Another Ebola epidemic is still underway at the other end of the country, in the East, which has killed 2,280 people since August 2018. The end of this epidemic must be proclaimed on June 25, in the end countdown 42 days with no new cases. This is the eleventh epidemic of Ebola fever declared on Congolese soil since the discovery of the virus in this country then called Zaire in 1976. The DRC is also affected by the global epidemic of coronavirus (3,195, including 2,896 in Kinshasa, and 72 deaths, according to the latest official figures released Monday.