DRC: 500 Killed In Ebola Epidemic

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC over the weekend announced that deaths from the country’s tenth Ebola Virus outbreak have now surpassed 500 since the epidemic was officially declared in August 2018 in North Kivu region on the border with Uganda and Rwanda. “In total, there have been 502 deaths and 271 people cured,” said a health ministry bulletin published on February 8, 2019.”

Agency reports cited Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga as saying for the first time, a vaccination programme protected 76,425 people and prevented “thousands” of deaths. “I believe we have prevented the spread of the epidemic in the big cities in the region,” he said. “The teams also managed to contain the spread of the epidemic to neighbouring countries,” Kalenga added, noting that the biggest problem was the high mobility of the population.

According to the charity, Save the Children, at least 785 people were affected, with one in five of them being children. Most of them were less than five years old. From January 2019, the number of deaths per week soared from 20 to 40. “If urgent measures are not taken, the epidemic could last another six months, and even a whole year,” warned Heather Kerr, Save the Children Country Representative for DRC.

The Spanish wing of the aid agency, Doctors Without Borders, MSF, reported on February 10, 2019 that there has been a surge in cases since January 15, 2019. It said Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan to the north of North Kivu where the outbreak started last Au...