Kinshasa (AFP) - The deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has now claimed 49 lives since the start of the month, the government has said, and the World Health Organization expects more cases. The gradually increasing death toll, with a further 2,000 people feared to have come into contact with the virus, adds to the woes of a country already facing violence, displacement and political uncertainty.
First reported on August 1 in the North Kivu province, the current outbreak has killed 49 of the 90 cases reported, according to the latest health ministry bulletin on Saturday. It said of the 49 deaths from the haemorrhagic fever, 63 were confirmed and 27 were probable. Confirmed cases are verified through laboratory tests on samples taken from patients. The cases treated as "probable" often concern sick people with a close epidemiological link to confirmed cases, but who have not been tested.
Field teams also identified 2,157 "contacts" -- people who may have been in contact with the virus -- according to the health ministry. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters on Friday from the UN agency's Geneva headquarters that it "expects more cases". "We do not know if all the chains of transmission have been identified," he added. The outbreak is the 10th to strike the DRC since 1976, when Ebola was first identified and named after a river in the north of the country.
Ebola has long been considered incurable, though swift isolation and the rapid treatment of symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea and dehydration has helped some patients to survive.
Ebola outbreaks occur when the virus is transmitted first from an infected animal to a human and then between humans. The viral infection is spread from animals to humans through contact with infected wildlife such as fruit bats, chimps, and gorillas. Certain fruit bats are believed to be the natural hosts for the Ebola viruses.
“Avoid making love or having sex at times when the temperature is high, especially at noon, because this activity places physical demands on you and increases your heart rate,” Santa Marta’s health secretary, Julio Salas, said on a local radio station. If residents believe physical activity is absolutely necessary, Salas advised, they should wait until after sunset “or at times when the temperature is lower,” Colombia Reports wrote.
Santa Marta, a coastal city popular among tourists, has seen one of the hottest summers in the South American country, averaging temperatures of above 90 degrees throughout July. In his radio interview, Salas said medical facilities have been overwhelmed with heat stroke cases, the Associated Press reported.
