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Africa’s top public health agency confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo on Friday after 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases were recorded in the country’s remote Ituri province.
Health officials are now investigating whether the outbreak involves the Ebola Zaire strain — the deadliest and most well-known version of the virus — or a different variant, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Neighboring Uganda also confirmed one Ebola-related death involving a Congolese man whose case officials said was imported from Congo.
The outbreak has been concentrated in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones in eastern Congo, an area near the borders of Uganda and South Sudan that officials warned could become a regional transmission risk because of mining-related travel, weak infrastructure and ongoing insecurity.
EBOLA OUTBREAK REPORTED IN AFRICAN COUNTRY — HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Health workers wearing protective suits tend to an Ebola victim in an isolation tent in Beni, Congo, on July 13, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal disease spread through bodily fluids including blood, vomit and semen. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and internal bleeding.
The Africa CDC said only four of the deaths have so far been laboratory confirmed, while testing and sequencing efforts continue to determine the exact strain involved in the outbreak.
Initial tests suggested the outbreak may not involve the Ebola Zaire strain, which was responsible for Congo’s devastating 2018-2020 epidemic that killed more than 1,000 people.
UGANDA STARTS CLINICAL TRIAL OF VACCINE FOR SUDAN STRAIN OF EBOLA AMID NEW OUTBREAK
Health workers walk with a boy suspected of having the Ebola virus at a treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it sent a response team to the region last week to help local officials investigate the outbreak and collect samples.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Congo has a “strong track record” responding to Ebola outbreaks and announced the agency is releasing $500,000 in emergency funding to support containment efforts.
Health authorities said Congo has stockpiles of Ebola treatments and approximately 2,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, though officials cautioned the vaccine is only effective against the Ebola Zaire strain and not against Sudan or Bundibugyo variants.
A health worker sprays disinfectant on a colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
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This marks Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in the country in 1976.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.