GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s authorities announced earlier this week a new Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than a dozen people in a southern province.
Samples analyzed at the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, confirmed the presence of the most virulent strain of the virus, known as “Zaire,” the earlier name of the country.
The announcement comes as the authorities are facing renewed, intensified fighting in the east and an already fragile health care system has been further impaired by U.S. aid cuts.
How Ebola is transmitted
The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be transmitted to people from wild animals. It then spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing, contaminated with these fluids.
The disease it causes is a rare but severe — and often fatal — illness in people. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
The virus was first discovered in 1976, near the lake of Ebola in what is now Congo. The first outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests.
The latest outbreak has killed more than a dozen
Congo’s Health Ministry announced on Thursday a new Ebola outbreak after the first confirmed case of a 34-year-old pregnant woman in the locality of Boulapé, in Mweka territory, in southern Kasai province.
She was admitted to the hospital last month with symptoms of hemorrhagic fever, and died a few hours later from multiple organ failure.
The new outbreak is suspected of causing 15 deaths among 28 people with symptoms …
