They amount to 370 probable deaths due to Ebola in the DR of the Congo
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has estimated the number of likely deaths due to the Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the country at 370, according to the latest data released by the agency.
In a report issued with figures in effect until January 2, authorities indicate that the total number of cases is 609, of which 561 are confirmed in laboratory tests and 48 are probable.
As a result of the virus, some 1.2 million voters in the northeastern and western areas were unable to vote in the elections on Sunday and will not be able to exercise their right until March 2019, almost two months after they are released. the results of the elections.
This outbreak was declared on August 1 in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, although the control of the epidemic has suffered from the refusal of some communities to receive treatment and insecurity in the area, where numerous armed groups operate .
It is the second outbreak declared in 2018 in DRC - just eight days after the health minister, Oly Ilunga, proclaimed the end of the previous epidemic in the west of the country - and the worst in the history of the DRC in relation to to the number of infections.
This epidemic has already surpassed the deadliest in the history of the DRC, which occurred in the town of Yambuku, in the north of the country, at the end of August 1976 and is considered the first recorded outbreak of Ebola and left 280 dead. of 318 cases that occurred.
Since August 8, when the vaccinations began, more than 54,000 people have been inoculated, mostly in the cities of Mabalako, Beni, Mandima, Katwa and Butembo, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood and contaminated body fluids, causes hemorrhagic fever and can reach a mortality rate of 90% if not treated in time.
The most devastating global outbreak was declared in March 2014, with cases that date back to December 2013 in Guinea Conakri, country from which it expanded to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Almost two years later, in January 2016, the WHO declared the end of this epidemic, in which 11,300 people died and more than 28,500 were infected, figures that, according to this UN agency, could be conservative.
