SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, (THEWILL) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the death of one person in the latest outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DPR).
The Congo Ministry of Health notified the WHO of nine suspected cases of Ebola in the Aketi territory, in the north-eastern province of Bas-Uele, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
Three people with the hemorrhagic fever have died, but only one death has been confirmed as resulting from the Zaire strain of Ebola.
Officials suspect that the two other deaths were also caused by the highly infectious virus, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.
Symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pain, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain and hemorrhaging can begin two to 21 days after exposure.
The Zaire strain of the virus is one of the most lethal. A 2007 outbreak of this strain in Congo had a fatality rate of 74%, claiming 200 lives.
There is no approved vaccine to prevent the virus, and there is no approved treatment or cure.
In 2014, more than 11,300 people were killed in the worst-ever outbreak of the virus in West Africa, most of them in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
The Federal Government confirmed 198 Ebola cases in Nigeria as at August 2014 following the death of a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who flew in for a conference, and that of a Nigerian medical doctor, Stella Adadevoh, who attended to him.
This is the eighth epidemic of Ebola that Congo has faced.
Nigerians are advised to beware in order to avoid a repeat of the Sawyer saga and imbibe the culture of washing of hands regularly.
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