New Ebola Outbreak Confirmed in Congo

Rubber, Congo (AP) – Congolese authorities announced a new Ebola outbreak earlier this week, and it’s already claimed over a dozen lives in a southern province.

Samples analyzed at the National biomedical Research Institute of Kinshasa, the capital city, confirmed the presence of the most virulent strain of the virus, known as “Zaire,” the contry’s former name.

How Ebola Spreads

The Ebola virus is highly contagious. It can jump from wild animals to people, and then spreads between people thru contact with body fluids like vomit, blood, or semen. It can also spread through contact with surfaces and materials – like bedding and clothing – contaminated with these fluids.

The disease it causes is rare, but it’s serious and often fatal. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

The virus was first discovered in 1976, near Lake Ebola, in what is now the Congo. The first outbreaks happened in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical jungles.

More Than a Dozen Dead in Latest Outbreak

The Congo Ministry of Health announced the new outbreak on Thursday after confirming the first case: a 34-year-old pregnant woman in the town of Boulapé, in the Mweka territory, in the southern Kasai province.

She was hospitalized last month with symptoms of hemorrhagic fever and died within hours due to multiple organ failure.

The Ministry reports that the new outbreak is suspected to have caused 15 deaths among 28 people showing symptoms,including four health workers. This is the sixteenth Ebola outbreak in the Congo, and Health minister Samuel-Rager Kamba says the mortality rate, estimated at 53.6%, shows how serious the situation is.