ITURI, Congo (AP) \u2014 At least 80 deaths have been reported in Congo’s new Ebola disease outbreak in the eastern Ituri province, authorities said, as health workers raced Saturday to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease. Officials first announced the outbreak on Friday, with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Associated Press journalists in Ituri\u2019s capital, Bunia, interviewed locals who recounted their fears and constant burials.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, people are dying … and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three, or even more people,\u201d said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. \u201cAt this point, we don\u2019t really know what kind of disease it is,\u201d said Asimwe.<\/p>\n
Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said late Friday that there have been eight laboratory-confirmed cases, among them four deaths.<\/p>\n
Test results confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the disease that has been less prominent in Congo\u2019s past outbreaks. This is Congo\u2019s 17th outbreak since Ebola first emerged in the country in 1976.<\/p>\n
Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.<\/p>\n
The suspected index case in the latest outbreak is a nurse who died at a hospital in Bunia, Kamba said. He said the case dates back three weeks to April 24.<\/p>\n
He did not say whether samples from the nurse were tested, but said the person presented symptoms suggestive of Ebola.<\/p>\n
Congo has experience in managing Ebola outbreaks but often faces logistical challenges to get expertise and supplies to affected regions.<\/p>\n
As Africa\u2019s second-largest country by land area, Congo\u2019s provinces are far from one another and mostly battling conflict. Ituri, for instance, is around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation\u2019s capital, Kinshasa, and is ravaged by violence from Islamic State-backed militants.<\/p>\n
The disease is so far confirmed in three health zones in the Ituri province, including the capital city, Bunia, as well as in Rwampara and Mongwalu where the outbreak is concentrated.<\/p>\n
Only 13 blood samples have been tested at the National Institute of Biomedical Research, eight returning positive with the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining five could not be analyzed due to an insufficient volume of samples, the health minister said.<\/p>\n
In Bunia, Ituri’s main city, businesses and regular activities at public places appeared to be normal on Friday.<\/p>\n
Resident Adeline Awekonimungu said she hopes the outbreak is quickly contained. “My recommendation is that the government take this matter seriously and that it takes charge of the hospitals so that this matter can be brought under control,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Uganda also has confirmed an Ebola case that authorities said was \u201cimported\u201d from Congo. The person died at a hospital in Uganda\u2019s capital, Kampala.<\/p>\n
The Africa Centres for Disease Control \u200band Prevention had said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITURI, Congo (AP) \u2014 At least 80 deaths have been reported in Congo’s new Ebola disease outbreak in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,326155,18596,326156,161559,113507,184754,184755,184750,326157,298334,324520,113508,7202,7203,358,3187,22770,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-800507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-congo-ebola-outbreak-ituri-bunia-rwampara","tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","tag-jean-marc-asimwe","tag-kampala","tag-kinshasa","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32503-ap-online-africa-news","tag-product-32538-ap-online-health-and-medical-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-samuel-roger-kamba","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-uganda","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}