Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Fri May 12, 2017 1:14pm GMT
ONE PERSON TESTS POSITIVE FOR EBOLA VIRUS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - HEALTH MINISTRY
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WHOVerified account @WHO FollowingIn a televised address, DRC’s health minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, warned that the outbreak was a “national health emergency with international significance” but urged people “not to panic”.[/FONT]
[FONT="]“As this is the eighth epidemic [of Ebola] that we are facing as a nation, we should not be rattled,” Kalenga said. “The ministry of health is taking all measures to respond quickly and efficiently to this new outbreak.”[/FONT]
[FONT="]The WHO’s in-country spokesperson, Eugene Kabambi, said regional health workers and protective equipment had already been rolled out to the remote area to contain the virus. A national team of personnel, along with experts and specialists from M?decins Sans Fronti?res, the US Centre for Disease Control, Unicef and WHO, will be following in the next few days.[/FONT]
[FONT="]“The DRC is a big country and the zone affected is quite difficult to access, but it is right on the border with Central African Republic,” said Kabambi. “People are constantly coming and going across the border to visit friends and family, so we are taking very urgent preventative measures to contain the risk.[/FONT]
[FONT="]“We must engage with local communities so they understand that this is a virus unlike any other, it is very contagious and deadly. We are engaging with village heads and community leaders so we can all work together and stop the virus from spreading.”[/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT="]Of the three people who have so far died of haemorrhagic fever, only one of them has been confirmed by lab results as having [/FONT]Ebola[FONT="]. He was a man who presented himself with a high fever last month at a local clinic and was told to travel to the nearest hospital for tests.
Kabambi said he died en route and the motorcycle taxi driver who was driving him, as well as another passenger, have also since died of the suspected virus and their deaths were being investigated.[/FONT]