DR Congo Ebola cases rise amid distrust, armed conflict zone

Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are responding to an Ebola outbreak suspected to have killed more than 200 people. Congolese government figures report 867 suspected cases and 204 deaths. The outbreak was declared on May 15, and suspected and confirmed cases have appeared across a region larger than the state of Florida. Uganda has reported five confirmed cases. The World Health Organization raised the national risk level to “very high,” citing high potential for rapid spread. Ebola causes fever and vomiting and can include bleeding, with symptoms that may take weeks to appear and a high fatality rate. Response efforts began after confirmation, but the virus may have been spreading for weeks or months before detection, complicating containment due to delayed diagnosis and an unknown number of infected people.

"Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are scrambling to contain an outbreak of Ebola virus, which is suspected to have killed more than 200 people and risks spreading across international borders. According to Congolese government figures released on Saturday, health workers have registered 867 suspected cases of Ebola and 204 deaths. The Congolese government first declared an outbreak on May 15. Since then, confirmed and suspected cases have popped up across an area of Congo larger than the state of Florida."

"Neighboring Uganda has also registered five confirmed Ebola cases. On Friday, the World Health Organization raised its risk level for the disease at a national level to "very high." "The potential of this virus spreading rapidly is high, very high, and that changed the whole dynamic," Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO director of health emergency alert and response operations, told reporters."

"Ebola is a viral disease that causes vomiting, fever and sometimes bleeding. It can take weeks to show symptoms and is often fatal. Congolese health workers, UN staff and aid organizations rapidly launched a large-scale response against the disease after an outbreak was confirmed. But Ebola was likely spreading for weeks if not months, according to some estimates before health authorities noticed it."

"The first known case was of a nurse who presented symptoms on April 24, in the city of Bunia, in Ituri province, in eastern Congo. According to an internal report by the Congolese health ministry, the nurse was buried in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu, in Ituri. The town had had a spate of unexplained deaths throughout April, including of four health workers who died in the space of a single week."

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