17 dead in new Ebola outbreak in DR Congo

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A new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has claimed 17 lives, the health ministry said on Tuesday, calling it a "public health emergency with international impact."

"Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus,” the ministry said in a statement.

"Twenty-one cases of fever with hemorrhagic indications and 17 deaths" have been recorded in Equateur province, it added, citing a notification to the ministry as of May 3.

It is the DRC's ninth known outbreak of Ebola since 1976, when the deadly viral disease – named after a river in the east of the country – was first identified in then-Zaire.

It also comes less than a year after the last outbreak, which killed eight people.

The outbreak occurred around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro.

Medical teams supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were dispatched to the zone on Saturday and took five samples from suspected active cases.

Two of those samples tested positive for the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, the ministry said.

"Since notification of the cases on May 3, no deaths have been reported either among the hospitalized cases or the healthcare personnel," the statement added however.

One of the world's most notorious diseases, both highly infectious and extremely lethal, Ebola is believed to be spread by bats, which can host the virus without dying. It then often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.

The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people, and infected some 28,600 as it rolled through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

While more than 99 percent of victims were in the three West African countries, cases occurred in other parts of the world, often stirring panic.

There is no current vaccine to prevent Ebola or licensed treatment for it, although a range of experimental drugs are in development.

The WHO said in a statement it was “working closely with the government of the DRC to rapidly scale up its operations and mobilize health partners."

(Top picture: This file handout released by the World Health Organization shows a Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) doctor taking care of an Ebola patient in Kampungu, DRC, September 29, 2007. /VCG Photo)

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters