Congo confirms Ebola outbreak
Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness outbreak in southeastern Congo is Ebola fever. Congo Health Minister Makwenge Kaput says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon have confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, specifically Ebola. More than 160 people have died of the illness in the affected region since late August and nearly 400 have been infected.
Congo’s last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 300 kilometres from the site of the current purported outbreak. Ebola virus, a filovirus, has one of the highest case fatalities (up to 80 percent) of any virus disease except rabies.
This outbreak comes hot on the heels of an outbreak of the closely related Marburg virus in Uganda last month.
[...] Congo confirms Ebola outbreak [...]