Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Another Lethal Flareup Of Ebola Puts Congo On Full Alert As It Also Battles COVID, Measles
Five people, including a 15-year-old girl, have died of Ebola in a fresh outbreak of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations Children's Fund said Monday. Nine cases total have been reported, UNICEF said. "Four additional people who contracted the virus -- all contacts of the deceased and including the child of one of the fatal cases -- are being treated in an isolation unit at the Wangata Hospital in Mbandaka," UNICEF said in a statement. (Fox, 6/2)
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today announced a new Ebola outbreak in Equateur province, the same area hit by an outbreak in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement. The event marks the DRC's eleventh Ebola outbreak and comes during the countdown to the end of the country's tenth and biggest outbreak in the eastern part of the country and amid battles against COVID-19 and the world's largest measles outbreak. (Schnirring, 6/1)
The infections were identified in the western city of Mbandaka in Equateur province, Longondo said in a text message Monday. 鈥淭here are already four deaths and four suspected cases鈥 who are still alive, he said. Equateur province last experienced an Ebola outbreak in 2018, with 54 cases and 33 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Congo is still struggling to extinguish the second-largest Ebola epidemic in history in the eastern part of the country, where more than 2,260 people have died despite the use of two new vaccines. (Kavanagh, 6/1)
Less than two months ago, Congo was about to declare an official end to an Ebola epidemic on the eastern side of the country that had lasted nearly two years and killed more than 2,275 people. Then, with just two days to go, a new case was found, and the outbreak could not be declared over. But officials say it is in its final stages. It is unclear how Ebola emerged in Mbandaka, which is about 750 miles west of the nearly-vanquished outbreak on the country鈥檚 eastern edge. Congo (formerly known as Zaire) is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, and has been under travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Maclean, 6/1)
