Friday, 11/05/2018 18:52 (GMT+7)
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Minister of Health Oly Ilunga on May 10th announced the first confirmed death in a new outbreak of Ebola virus, and said 11 other people were confirmed to be infected.
Photo for illustration (Source: AFP)
Last month, the DRC’s Ministry of Health announced that at least 17 people have died since inhabitants of a village in the country’s northwest began showing symptoms resembling Ebola. However, those cases were not confirmed through testing.
The World Health Organisation and officials from other international health groups are now in the area to help contain the spread of the deadly virus.
This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the DRC.
The first reported case of Ebola occurred in the DRC in 1976 in an outbreak that killed at least 280 people.
The worst Ebola epidemic ended in West Africa two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting about 28,600 across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread through direct contact, and it can also be transmitted through sexual contact or unprotected handling of contaminated corpses./.
Compiled by BTA