Health investigators confirmed Wednesday that an outbreak killing scores in central Republic of Congo is Ebola, and warned the highly lethal hemorrhagic fever could still be spreading.
”We’re not suggesting that this is over or even contained. We’re treating it as an active outbreak,” said Iain Simpson, representative with the World Health Organisation in Geneva.
The toll stood at 73 infections, including 59 deaths, by WHO investigators’ count. Republic of Congo health authorities reported 80 cases with 67 deaths in the infected Cuvette West region, quarantined by the national government since last week. Blood samples drawn from victims in the Cuvette West region tested positive for Ebola in a Libreville, Gabon laboratory, said Josef Mboussa, a top official in Republic of Congo’s health ministry. WHO also confirmed the outbreak was Ebola.
The viral disease is one of the world’s deadliest, causing rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90% of those infected. ”There will probably be more deaths due to the complexity of the disease,” said Mboussa.
Mboussa wasn’t able to say if medical examiners were registering new infections in the region; the first reports of the illness reached the capital, Brazzaville, over two weeks ago.
Ebola’s two- to 21-day incubation period makes it difficult to gauge how quickly the outbreak may still be moving, Simpson said.
Ebola spreads through bodily fluids, generally kills rapidly and has so far afflicted far-flung regions of Africa, meaning the disease has burned out before spreading great distances.
Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can also carry the infection.
Last week, authorities quarantined the forested Cuvette West region, which has 30 000 inhabitants spread among provincial towns and small villages. The disease has centered in the villages of Kelle and Mbomo.
Efforts to investigate the outbreak are being stymied. Frantic villagers terrified by Ebola’s horrific symptoms have fled from health workers in their head-to-toe protective suits.
Along with medical personnel, anthropologists have been sent to the region to help explain to the disease to people. ”The villagers are very scared; they see people getting sick and dying,” said Simpson of the WHO. ”We’re trying to get them to
understand the situation.”
Ebola killed 43 people in Republic of Congo and 53 others in Gabon between October 2001 and February 2002. WHO says more than 1 000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region
of Congo. – Sapa-AP