Congo - Ebola - 183 deaths + 187 suspected cases

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

<TABLE id=texttable><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD id=gap></TD><TD class=almost_half_cell>Kananga: 8 new cases of Ebola recorded in Mweka and Lwebo
Western Kasa? | September 26, 2007 with 16:51: 03


The World Health Organization, WHO, recorded yesterday Tuesday 8 new cases of Ebola in the localities of Mweka and Lwebo. Meanwhile, the taking away of the American mobile laboratories started in Mweka and end in a few days with Lwebo, brings back radiookapi.net


WHO antenna of Kasa? Occidental indicates that these 8 cases were confirmed by the laboratory of the CDC in Atlanta in the USA. That changes to 17 the total number of the victims of the epidemic of Ebola.
According to Doctor Kambale Magazani of WHO Kananga, this virus with the same virulence as the old virus discovered a few years ago. It estimates that the devastation of the current virus is less by the fact that the medical response was fast.
The specialists in the American laboratories spread themselves in Mweka to begin the test sample selection while in Lwebo, affirms the chief consultant of zone, the operation begins this Thursday.
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http://www.radiookapi.net/index.php?i=53&a=14750&sm=1&lm=10&s=EBOLA&tbl=9&of=0

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

<TABLE id=texttable><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD id=gap></TD><TD class=almost_half_cell>Kananga: 8 new cases of Ebola recorded in Mweka and Lwebo
Western Kasa? | September 26, 2007 with 16:51: 03


The World Health Organization, WHO, recorded yesterday Tuesday 8 new cases of Ebola in the localities of Mweka and Lwebo. Meanwhile, the taking away of the American mobile laboratories started in Mweka and end in a few days with Lwebo, brings back radiookapi.net


WHO antenna of Kasa? Occidental indicates that these 8 cases were confirmed by the laboratory of the CDC in Atlanta in the USA. That changes to 17 the total number of the victims of the epidemic of Ebola.
According to Doctor Kambale Magazani of WHO Kananga, this virus with the same virulence as the old virus discovered a few years ago. It estimates that the devastation of the current virus is less by the fact that the medical response was fast.
The specialists in the American laboratories spread themselves in Mweka to begin the test sample selection while in Lwebo, affirms the chief consultant of zone, the operation begins this Thursday.
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http://www.radiookapi.net/index.php?i=53&a=14750&sm=1&lm=10&s=EBOLA&tbl=9&of=0

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=488 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=3>Situation Report
Democratic Republic of Congo

Ebola Virus outbreak

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A quarantined site. Photo submitted by Larry Sthreshley
PDA has provided funds from One Great Hour of Sharing to respond to an outbreak of the Ebola virus, possibly the largest yet, that has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
186 deaths have been registered in hospitals or clinics, but it is possible that many are dying without being counted.
Ebola ? known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever ? is a severe, often-fatal disease in humans that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized.
PC(USA) Mission worker Larry Sthreshley and Bill Clemmer, an American Baptist Churches mission worker who is head of SANRU (the Programme de Sant? Rurale, or Rural Health Program), are working closing with the CDC in an effort to confront this recent Ebola outbreak.
The Atlanta-based CDC has been asked to establish a central lab and base to set up a diagnostic test for Ebola. This is essential, as everyone with a fever will not have Ebola; yet those who are positive need to be isolated.
Ebola is extremely contagious. An MSF (Doctors without Borders) nurse was tearfully recounting the story of a Congolese nurse she worked with for the past two weeks; the nurse, a health care worker who took basic precautions, is now in active stages of the disease (and dying). The nurse decided to stay in her home rather than go to the clinic, and MSF had to send a jeep to her house to take her away, knowing that many of her family members had cared for her.
The CDC asked for SANRU's assistance because the three epicenters of the outbreak are located around health districts where SANRU is involved and because of SANRU?s relationship with church structures that are co-managing the hospitals and health centers in the affected health districts.
Luebo Presbyterian Hospital has been chosen as the site where a team of 10-12 scientists will set up the lab and do the testing. Protection material is being provided to the hospital. Medical Benevolence Foundation is also assisting with vehicles needed to move around the area. http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/af...bola091807.htm
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[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=488 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=3>Visit to Bulape

Katherine Niles reflects on her September 2007 visit to Bulape, an area affected by the Ebola virus

September 25, 2007
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Welcoming faces. Photo: Katherine Niles
Katherine Niles recently visited Bulape, a Presbyterian mission station with a hospital in the epidemic area, while en route to the Presbyterian mission hospital in Luebo. On behalf of Interchurch Medical Assistance World Health (IMAWH), Niles is helping to coordinate logistic support for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) team that is setting up a diagnostic laboratory for the Ebola epidemic at the Presbyterian mission hospital in Luebo.

There is a popular expression in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that says, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." In the Kasai, around the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic, this still rings too true.

I accompanied the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight yesterday to Bulape, an isolated Presbyterian mission station in the heart of the DRC. We carried a load of personal protection suits, soap, bleach and other supplies for the hospital staff there to cope with a potentially large number of Ebola patients.
In some ways, it felt like a part of the world that time forgot. Our landing on the little-used grass airstrip startled a group of sheep grazing placidly. Instead of darting right or left as our pilot Garth Pederson brought the plane to a stop, they ran in terror ahead of the plane. Predictably, hundreds of enthusiastic, chattering and curious children scampered from everywhere to press in around us, eager for a hello and a handshake, but a couple men with bamboo poles kept them at bay so they couldn't and wouldn't touch us.
There were changes. The smiles of the children and their chants of ?mundele? held warm familiarity, but the warm, hardy handshake greeting so characteristic of the hospitable spirit of the people of DRC is now avoided in this area where people are rubbing shoulders with Ebola. Instead, folks offer symbols of greetings: a nod, a bent elbow, a bow ? poignant reminders of the changes imposed by recent events.


Katherine and the doctors in Bulape
Dr. Joseph, medical director of the Bulape health zone, and Dr. Patrick, medical director of the Bulape hospital, came on foot to greet us and receive the freight. In addition to the delivery of supplies, my mission was to cast a glance at the house that serves the Bulape hospital and church as a guesthouse. While Garth unloaded our cargo for transport to the hospital, Dr. Joseph and Dr. Patrick accompanied me to the guesthouse. In the path, local government and territory officials waylaid us to greet me (with a nod), to inquire about my mission and to press me for promises of benefits for them personally. Some things stay exactly the same.
Further down the path, we passed a two-room cement block house with a clutch of people seated in the sparse shade provided by the overhanging tin roof. Dr. Joseph slowed our pace, noting that we should first greet these people. It would help them. We offered a bow.

Mr. Kwete's family. Photo: Katherine Niles
The expressionless eyes of the two women gripped me, and I choked on my greeting. These were Mabinghi and Mayinda, the widows of Mr. Kwete, a man who died of Ebola at the Bulape Hospital five days ago, along with Mayinda's son and Mr. Kwete?s kid brother. All had intimate contact with Mr. Kwete during his illness. They've been brought to Bulape from their village 12 miles away, and this house has been prepared for them to wait.
To wait for what? They have no symptoms of illness yet, but the course of the Ebola virus infection is well documented and unforgiving. .. .
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http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/africa/drc-ebola092507.htm

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - update 3, 27 Sep 2007

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The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is continuing to respond to the on-going outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Province of Kasai Occidental with the support of a wide range of international partners.
As of today, there has been a total of 17 laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever reported in the Mweka and Luebo health zone, Kasai Occidental Province, along with additional confirmations of other etiologies associated with this outbreak including typhoid and Shigella dysenteriae type 1. The last confirmed case of Ebola died on 22 September in Kampungu MSF isolation ward and was buried safely. Mobile laboratories, installed by specialists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and the National Public Health Agency of Canada in two of the affected villages are enabling the teams on the ground to conduct rapid and precise diagnosis of new suspected Ebola cases within two to six hours.
Teams on the ground are focusing on breaking the chain of transmission and are continuing to monitor additional suspected cases in isolation facilities and to trace contacts. The national health authorities are putting in place stringent infection control measures in health centres and hospitals in the affected area to minimize the risk of infection among health care workers. Information and training material on infection control is being prepared and disseminated to provincial health authorities across the country in case additional cases are identified beyond the currently affected area.
The local health authorities in the affected area are working closely with social mobilization experts, and communication teams to develop key information messages for the local communities. Journalists are preparing and broadcasting radio sketches on the prevention of Ebola as well as providing communities with information on how to recognize its early symptoms and alert the relevant authorities. It is estimated that up to 60% of the local population is being reached through these radio broadcasts.
The communications teams are also working through local civil society groups including women and youth associations, churches, military units, schools and markets to reach as wide a spectrum of the population as possible. These activities are essential to alert the communities to the risk of transmission while at the same time reducing the panic and fear that are frequently associated with outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fever. Retrospective investigations of hospital records are under-way to determine the progress the outbreak took in its initial stages and to document the spread of the epidemic in the first few months.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-77FNED?OpenDocument

Link to WHO: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_09_27/en/index.html

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Congo-Kinshasa: Top UN Official Visits Kananga to Assess Security, Ebola Situation

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UN News Service (New York)
26 September 2007
Posted to the web 26 September 2007

Concerned over the political and security situation on the ground, as well the threat to United Nations staff posed by the deadly Ebola virus, the world body's top official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has just concluded a visit to the city of Kananga in the western Kasai province.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN mission (MONUC) William Lacy Swing impressed upon local officials during his visit to the province yesterday that the decision to move UN troops to the DRC's troubled eastern region is only for the short term.

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"The temporary withdrawal of MONUC military from Kananga was a strategic decision to fulfil military requirements elsewhere, but I will not cease making pleas for financial backers to come to the aid of Congo and Kasai Occidental," he noted.
The province's Governor Tr?sor Kapuku underscored MONUC's crucial role in bringing economic prosperity to the area.
"If these efforts by MONUC are reduced now, it will have a counter-productive effect for the future of the province," he said.
Mr. Swing presented the Governor with 367 mattresses to be distributed to area hospitals through MONUC's Quick Impact Projects programme.
"One knows one's friends in times of difficulty," Governor Kapuku said, expressing his gratitude.
Later, Mr. Swing attended a town hall meeting at which MONUC staff aired their concerns regarding the recent Ebola outbreak and security issues.
The Special Representative assured UN staff that upon returning to the capital Kinshasa, he will establish a commission to seek out immediate solutions to these issues.
Last week, the UN announced that of some 400 cases of illness and 170 deaths reported since April in the Kasai Occidental province, nine cases of the virus, which causes death in 50 to 90 per cent of cases, have been confirmed. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709261032.html
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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

MSF: 30 suspected Ebola cases put in isolation in Congo


Nairobi - Some 30 suspected cases of the Ebola virus have been admitted to an isolation unit in the Congo, where an outbreak of the disease has infected at least 17 people in recent months, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Friday.

The World Health Organization this week confirmed six deaths were due to the fatal disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which broke out in the West Kasai province in April.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said three patients had died in an isolation unit last weekend and two more were severely ill.

MSF's team in Kampungu, the epicentre of the disease, is made up of 65 people, who were assisting in properly burying those killed by the disease to prevent its spreading as well as isolating those suspected to be infected.

The total number of Ebola cases is at 17, according the WHO, but MSF said "this doesn't necessarily mean that the outbreak is spreading, since the samples were taken more than 10 days ago."

Some 400 people have become ill and 174 died in the province since April, but other diseases including typhoid fever and the dysentery virus Shigella have been reported.

Ebola, which causes haemorrhaging and fever and proves fatal in 50 to 90 per cent of cases, is the most deadly of the diseases identified in the Congo so far.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/115428.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Congo says 7 new cases of Ebola confirmed, bringing total to 24

KINSHASA, Congo: Field doctors have confirmed seven new cases of the deadly Ebola virus in Congo, bringing the total number of people to have contracted the illness here to 24, the Health Ministry said.

Two mobile testing laboratories confirmed the latest cases in Kampunga, a small district in the province of Kasai Occidental, said Dr. Benoit Kebela, director-general of Congo's Health Ministry. A total of six people have died of the virus so far.

Kebela said the two mobile laboratories, provided by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and the National Public Health Agency of Canada, had relayed the news to Congolese officials.

The outbreak in Congo is the first major resurgence of Ebola in years.

About 400 people have fallen ill in the affected region of Kasai Occidental over the past five months, and at least 170 people have died ? though only six of those killed are confirmed to have died from Ebola. The fate of the other 18 who tested positive for Ebola was not immediately clear.

Some of those who have fallen ill since April have tested negative for Ebola, but positive for other diseases such as shigella ? a diarrhea-like disease ? or typhoid.

According to the World Health Organization, the so-called "Zaire strain" of Ebola kills over 80 percent of those infected through massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment. It is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Shigella and typhoid ? a common disease in the region ? respond to antibiotics, unlike Ebola.

Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 185 miles (300 kilometers) from the site of the current outbreak.

WHO says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and Congo. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can carry the virus.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/28/africa/AF-GEN-Congo-Ebola.php

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Source: Reuters Foundation
Date: 28 Sep 2007


<!--toolbar--><!--firstLine-->DR Congo: Congo says Ebola outbreak contained, but not over


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By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo said on Friday that health experts were managing to contain the spread of an outbreak of deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever whose confirmed cases have risen to 24.
However, a senior health official said it was not yet possible to say the epidemic in Western Kasai province was under control.
Analysis by mobile laboratories set up this week in the affected province found seven more samples that tested positive for Ebola, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 24.
Only 53 of more than 400 suspected cases have so far been laboratory tested. At least 174 deaths have been linked to suspected Ebola cases in Western Kasai province since April.
Ebola, which is fatal in between 50 and 90 percent of cases, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons.
Benoit Kebela, head of the government's inter-ministry group tackling the outbreak, said efforts by Congolese authorities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and medical relief agencies to halt the spread of the outbreak appeared to be making progress.
"We cannot say that there has been an extension of the epidemic. The epidemic is well contained. Today we can say that," Kebela told a news conference.
On Aug. 29, more than 30 suspected cases were registered in a single day. The number of new suspected cases had since dropped dramatically, with the most recent recorded on Monday.
Kebela said many more people could still be infected with Ebola in its incubation phase, and could also fall ill.
INCUBATION PERIOD
"We're still in the middle of an epidemic," he said. "In order to declare it under control, you have to wait twice the incubation period, or 42 days after the last death," he said.
Several suspected cases were reported last week in Western Kasai's provincial capital, Kananga, and in neighbouring Eastern Kasai, raising fears that the outbreak had spread.
However, Kebela said laboratory tests had shown these cases were not Ebola. Health officials believe many suspected cases may be caused by other diseases, such as typhoid and Shigella dysentery, which have similar early symptoms.
People began falling ill in April in the village of Kampungu, now considered the epicentre of the outbreak.
Ebola symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, bleeding from orifices.
Two severely ill patients were at an isolation centre in Kampungu run by the Belgian chapter of medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Three died there last weekend.
MSF and the WHO have already sent tonnes of supplies to the area affected by the outbreak and dispatched teams of doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and Ebola experts to the field.
Congolese authorities have launched a wide-reaching campaign to educate people about the risks of Ebola infection.
"The main things are to identify suspected cases, isolate them and test them. That's how we break the chain," WHO spokeswoman Christiana Salvi told Reuters on Friday. Western Kasai is east of Kikwit, the site of a major Ebola outbreak in former Zaire in 1995, which killed 250 of 315 people infected.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EMAE-77GMC7?OpenDocument

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

26 September 2007
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WHO/Christopher Black

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The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the support of international partners, is continuing field investigations to determine the extent of the outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the province of Kasai Occidental.
The following photo gallery provides an initial look at the Ebola response. Our photographer Christopher Black is in Western Kasai province and will be filing more photos in the days ahead.
:: View the photo gallery
Support from partners

The response to the Ebola fever outbreak includes diverse expertise from all over the world. A team from the WHO Country Office has been in the affected area since 3 September. More experts have joined them from the WHO Regional Office for Africa and from WHO Headquarters. Epidemiologists, virologists, laboratory experts and logisticians from the Ministry of Health, WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Public Health Agency of Canada are in the field.
Laboratory equipment and outbreak response materials are being delivered by air with help from the UN Peacekeeping Mission, M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) and Interchurch Medical Assistance. Experts in infection control from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the H?pital Cantonal in Geneva are being deployed to strengthen infection control. Isolation wards have been established with the ongoing support of a field team from MSF (Belgium). Epicentre, a WHO collaborating centre based in Paris, has deployed an epidemiologist to support the MSF team.
Social mobilization activities are being implemented by national field teams with the support of the national Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and UNICEF. A medical anthropologist has been identified by the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris to work with the social mobilization teams.
Other partners from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network are also providing support. They include the African Field Epidemiology Network, the Bernard Nocht Institute, the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville, the European Centre for Disease Control, the Institute Pasteur, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the National University of Singapore, the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, and Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network Inc. http://www.who.int/features/2007/ebo.../en/index.html

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

26 September 2007
All images are free to download and use, with the mention: copyright: WHO/Christopher Black

Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Social mobilization teams in Kananga, the capital of Kasai Occidental province, use community radio to spread messages about prevention of Ebola haemorrhagic fever to local people. Radio is a vital link to the remote communities in the region.
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At the MSF isolation ward near Kampungu, Zo? Young from MSF Belgium (right) transfers blood samples from a suspected case of Ebola haemorrhagic fever to Dr Dominique Legros, medical epidemiologist from WHO. The samples are transported to the field laboratory of the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in nearby Luebo, which will soon be operational.
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Dr Vital Mondonge Makuma from the Ministry of Health (left), Dr Sabue Mulangu from the Institute Nationale pour Recherce Biomedicale in Kinshasa (centre) and Dr Dominique Legros from WHO carry out surveillance activities at a small health centre near the village of Bakua Mayi, some 15 km north of Kampungu.
Download high resolution image [jpg 781kb]

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Dr Vital Mondonge Makuma from the Ministry of Health (left), Dr Sabue Mulangu from the Institute Nationale pour Recherce Biomedicale in Kinshasa (centre) and Dr Dominique Legros from WHO carry out surveillance activities at a small health centre near the village of Bakua Mayi, some 15 km north of Kampungu.
Download high resolution image [jpg 590kb]

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Eugene Kabambi (with white cap) from the WHO Office for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cristiana Salvi (in black jacket) from the WHO Office in Rome distribute information about Ebola haemorrhagic fever to villagers at Kakenge, 55 km from Mweka. The road from Kananga to the town of Mwake is about 230 km, but because the roads are difficult, it can take 10 hours by car.
Download high resolution image [jpg 621kb]

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WHO staff members distribute information about Ebola haemorrhagic fever to villagers at Kakenge. People in these remote places are anxious to receive information about the disease and how to prevent its spread.
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WHO team members load medical laboratory supplies in Kananga. The supplies are part of the Canadian mobile field laboratory to be set up in Mweka. The laboratory will be attached to the existing MSF isolation ward to expedite the diagnosis of patients and to differentiate between the different pathogens that have also been associated with this outbreak.
Download high resolution image [jpg 782kb]

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A woman with her child waits for treatment at a small health centre near the village of Bakua Mayi, some 15 km north of Kampungu.
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A villager in Kakenge reads a leaflet about Ebola haemorrhagic fever and its prevention. The Ministry of Health produced the leaflet in collaboration with WHO.
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Medical experts collect data at the Lunkelu health centre in Luebo as part of the surveillance for Ebola. Health teams visit each health centre to detect any new cases or to check if any contacts of known Ebola cases have become ill. The collected data is analysed daily by the Ministry of Health and WHO.
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An MSF health worker talks to family and community members in front of the MSF isolation ward near Kampungu. The ward was constructed to safely care for people suffering Ebola.
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Medical experts from several organizations are working at the MSF isolation ward. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multi.../en/index.html

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Ebola Virus Spreading In Congo

Number Of Infected Jumps To More Than 20, Six Deaths Confirmed


KINSHASA, Congo, Sept. 28, 2007

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Dr. Gary Kobinger, research scientist, Dr Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General of the National Microbiology Lab and Dr. Heinz Feldmann, Chief of Special Pathogens discuss, left to right, at a press conference in Winnipeg, Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, their plans to send a team to the Democratic Republic of Congo to assist with an outbreak of Ebola. (AP)








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(AP) <!-- sphereit start -->Field doctors have confirmed seven new cases of the deadly Ebola virus in Congo, bringing the total number of people to have contracted the illness here to 24, the Health Ministry said.

Two mobile testing laboratories confirmed the latest cases in Kampunga, a small district in the province of Kasai Occidental, said Dr. Benoit Kebela, director-general of Congo's Health Ministry. A total of six people have died of the virus so far.

Kebela said the two mobile laboratories, provided by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and the National Public Health Agency of Canada, had relayed the news to Congolese officials.
The outbreak in Congo is the first major resurgence of Ebola in years.

About 400 people have fallen ill in the affected region of Kasai Occidental over the past five months, and at least 170 people have died - though only six of those killed are confirmed to have died from Ebola. The fate of the other 18 who tested positive for Ebola was not immediately clear.

Some of those who have fallen ill since April have tested negative for Ebola, but positive for other diseases such as shigella - a diarrhea-like disease - or typhoid.

According to the World Health Organization, the so-called "Zaire strain" of Ebola kills over 80 percent of those infected through massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment. It is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Shigella and typhoid - a common disease in the region - respond to antibiotics, unlike Ebola.

Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 185 miles from the site of the current outbreak.

WHO says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and Congo. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can carry the virus. <!-- sphereit end -->

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/28/world/main3307090.shtml

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Ebola: no proven case with Kananga until there
Western Kasa? | September 29, 2007 with 10:38: 07




The results of the examinations of the samples taken on suspect cases of hemorrhagic fever Ebola and which were put in insulation at the hospital complex of Kananga have been known for Friday. They were declared negative by the provincial Minister for Health, brings back radiookapi.net

??, declared Friday with the press Doctor Ntumba Tshitoka, Minister provincial for Health to the Kasa?-Westerner. The taken samples were sent for examination to an American laboratory installed in the territory of Lwebo, in the same province. However, for the provincial medical authority, alarm must remain maximum in the zones of health of the province until the last suspect will be out of the danger. In his opinion, there was more than two hundred suspect cases. ?We did not stop the fight against the disease. I said it in my poin of press, the population must continue to observe measurements of hygienes and to adopt certain behaviors to avoid the propagation of the disease?, it insisted.

http://www.radiookapi.net/index.php?i=53&a=14777

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

South Sudan closes border with DR Congo over Ebola fears

Sudan Tribune

29 sep. 07 - 14.40h


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September 28, 2007 (KINSHASA) ? The border between South Sudan and Aru territory in northeastern of DR Congo 260 km north of Bunia has been closed since Tuesday 25 September, said the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi.

According to the chief of Kakwa collectively, the decision was taken by the South Sudan authorities who fear the spread of Ebola epidemics affecting DRCongo?s Kasai Provinces.

He said elements of the southern Sudan army, the Sudan People?s Liberation Army (SPLA) were deployed since three days along the border to prevent movement by people from both sides.

The president of the Congo companies? federation in Kakwa told the radio that border closure would penalize the traders in the area. He indicated that businessmen have no other market to sell goods which they bought to run out in Sudan.

He urged the Congolese authorities to inform southern Sudan government that Ebola epidemics affect regions distant from Kakwa. http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=15555

[Treyfish]

Re: Congo - Ebola - 160 dead - WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Rwanda: Govt Vows to Block Ebola

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New Times (Kigali)
30 September 2007
Posted to the web 30 September 2007
Martin Tindiwensi
Kigali
THE government of Rwanda has vowed to prevent Ebola, a deadly disease that is prevalent in west Kasai region of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo from reaching Rwandans especially those living along DRC border.
Innocent Nyaruhirira, the State Minister in charge of HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases said this September 27 while on a visit to the Western Province to monitor the implementation of the control measures of Ebola as well evaluate the fight against the current cholera outbreak in Rubavu and Rutsiro districts.
"I'm here to evaluate the implementation of the prevention plans we designed to cut Ebola risks from reaching our people. We have designed forms which we shall use at the Congolese border through the help of the World Health Organization, Immigration and police," Nyaruhirira said.
He downplayed the current fear residents in the Western Province have of catching Ebola from Congolese refugees fleeing from the war.
Asked about the current cholera outbreak in the two districts where three people are reported to have died, the health minister said he had visited the area and everything possible was being done to wipe out the disease.
"Fortunately, the outbreak is not in the recent flooded area of Bigogwe and Kanzenze sectors", he said adding that the outbreak in both districts and in sectors on the shores of Lake Kivu were strongly related to consumption of dirty water from Lake Kivu.
"Unlike Ebola, cholera is an easy disease to cure but very contagious and can kill in a short time where there is no sufficient treatment. Its causes are connected to poor hygiene. It should therefore be every one's responsibility to reduce risks of such out breaks by improving Hygiene in homes" the minister advised.
He said that the ministry has equipped health centres in both districts to provide adequate treatment and promised there would be no more deaths.
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He called upon local leaders to increase awareness among the people by encouraging them to boil drinking water, improve hygiene in homes such as having pit latrines and washing hands before eating.
According to Rubavu District officials, residents along Lake Kivu had resorted to drinking lake water when the recent heavy rains blocked and destroyed the water pipes.
However, the district together with ELECTROGAZ has since done everything possible to ensure clean water is available to all people. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709300030.html
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