As the world continues to battle and recover from one of the largest global pandemics in a while, the Democratic Republic of Congo is said to be battling a new Ebola outbreak.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the DRC’s Ministry of Health, there have been six cases detected in the Wangata area. Of those six detected cases, four people have died while the remaining two are still under care.
“This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said in a statement. “Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies.”
It is being predicted that more cases will pop up as activities increase in the region. The current outbreak is the country’s 11th since 1976. Since that time there have been 3,195 cases with 72 of those resulting in death.
The country is still recovering from its last outbreak which is in the final stages and is slated to be declared as over sometime late this month.
“To reinforce local leadership, WHO plans to send a team to support scaling up the response,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “Given the proximity of this new outbreak to busy transport routes and vulnerable neighboring countries, we must act quickly.”
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