Re: Dem. Rep. Congo - 15 probable/confirmed cases (10 fatal) of hemorrhagic fever in Orientale province - Ebola Bundibugyo confirmed
Re: Dem. Rep. Congo - 15 probable/confirmed cases (10 fatal) of hemorrhagic fever in Orientale province - Ebola Bundibugyo confirmed
DRC: Violence hampers aid work in Ituri
Photo: Richard Pituwa/IRIN
?We have buried too many people? ? District Commissioner Freddy BosombaBUNIA, 21 August 2012 (IRIN) - Inter-ethnic tensions have again turned violent in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo?s Ituri region, compromising the delivery of humanitarian aid to more than 100,000 people, according to officials there.
Some 13 civilians have been killed in recent weeks, according to civil society sources.
An estimated 60,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Ituri between 1998 and 2003 as ethnically aligned armed groups vied for control of power and resources, notably gold deposits.
According to a 27 July memo by a coalition of civil society organizations, the decomposed bodies of five members of the Hema community were found in Kapuru, a settlement on the shore of Lake Albert in an area under the control of the Front de la resistance patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) armed group, about 100km south of Bunia, Ituri?s main city.
?The rebels captured six of them as they were heading to Uganda to visit a sick relative, demanding money,? recounted the brother of one of the victims.
?The rebels said, ?You have refused to join our group, we?re going to kill you,? and they opened fire. One of them escaped after the rebels cut off his hand with a machete,? he added.
The spokesperson for the Hema-sud community, Aliegera Kwonke, said, ?We in the Hema community feel targeted. The FRPI don?t allow us to go about our business, our roads are blocked, our crops looted. Our people are massacred under the noses of the army. We don?t feel safe.?
A few days after the bodies were found, a member of the Ngity community disappeared in the same area, prompting demonstrations in the lakeside villages of Nyamavi and Soni by Ngity youths brandishing machetes and other weapons.
On 2 August, the population of Ndimo, 160km southwest of Bunia, barricaded the road leading to North Kivu Province and displayed the corpses of five people killed by unidentified assailants.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96144/DRC-Violence-hampers-aid-work-in-Ituri
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With the civil unrest and roads being barricaded - it might be that many people are fleeing/traveling in the remote backwoods. Thus allowing more contact with the virus.
In 1998 the Orientale villages of Durba and Watsa were the center of an outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever among gold mine workers, so we know the virus is endemic.
The map below locates that outbreak.
<img src="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/images/03-0355-F1.jpg">
Commenting on the 1998 outbreak Dr. Bausch notes that the outbreak was "consistent with multiple parallel primary introductions rather than a single one amplified by secondary spread" - so the bug is out there in the wild.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/12/03-0355_article.htm
Re: Dem. Rep. Congo - 15 probable/confirmed cases (10 fatal) of hemorrhagic fever in Orientale province - Ebola Bundibugyo confirmed
The simultaneous outbreak of Ebola virus infection in close proximity, caused by different strains of the virus, suggests that some climatic or environmental factor may be involved.
DRC: Violence hampers aid work in Ituri
Photo: Richard Pituwa/IRIN
?We have buried too many people? ? District Commissioner Freddy BosombaBUNIA, 21 August 2012 (IRIN) - Inter-ethnic tensions have again turned violent in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo?s Ituri region, compromising the delivery of humanitarian aid to more than 100,000 people, according to officials there.
Some 13 civilians have been killed in recent weeks, according to civil society sources.
An estimated 60,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Ituri between 1998 and 2003 as ethnically aligned armed groups vied for control of power and resources, notably gold deposits.
According to a 27 July memo by a coalition of civil society organizations, the decomposed bodies of five members of the Hema community were found in Kapuru, a settlement on the shore of Lake Albert in an area under the control of the Front de la resistance patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) armed group, about 100km south of Bunia, Ituri?s main city.
?The rebels captured six of them as they were heading to Uganda to visit a sick relative, demanding money,? recounted the brother of one of the victims.
?The rebels said, ?You have refused to join our group, we?re going to kill you,? and they opened fire. One of them escaped after the rebels cut off his hand with a machete,? he added.
The spokesperson for the Hema-sud community, Aliegera Kwonke, said, ?We in the Hema community feel targeted. The FRPI don?t allow us to go about our business, our roads are blocked, our crops looted. Our people are massacred under the noses of the army. We don?t feel safe.?
A few days after the bodies were found, a member of the Ngity community disappeared in the same area, prompting demonstrations in the lakeside villages of Nyamavi and Soni by Ngity youths brandishing machetes and other weapons.
On 2 August, the population of Ndimo, 160km southwest of Bunia, barricaded the road leading to North Kivu Province and displayed the corpses of five people killed by unidentified assailants.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96144/DRC-Violence-hampers-aid-work-in-Ituri
-----------------------------------------------------
With the civil unrest and roads being barricaded - it might be that many people are fleeing/traveling in the remote backwoods. Thus allowing more contact with the virus.
In 1998 the Orientale villages of Durba and Watsa were the center of an outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever among gold mine workers, so we know the virus is endemic.
The map below locates that outbreak.
<img src="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/images/03-0355-F1.jpg">
Commenting on the 1998 outbreak Dr. Bausch notes that the outbreak was "consistent with multiple parallel primary introductions rather than a single one amplified by secondary spread" - so the bug is out there in the wild.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/12/03-0355_article.htm
