Germany taz
Democratic Republic of Congo: Number of Ebola cases exceeds 10,000
The current Ebola outbreak is growing particularly quickly. So far, more than 10,000 infections with the dangerous virus have been registered in the DR Congo. more...
Deutsch (original) ·Auto-translated to English
dpa | In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of reported Ebola cases has risen to 10,060. This was announced by the health authorities in the Central African country. According to the information, 4,887 people have died of Ebola since the outbreak became known in mid-May. The African health authority Africa CDC speaks of the fastest growing Ebola outbreak in history.
Ebola fever is a life-threatening disease. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with body fluids and causes a highly contagious fever with diarrhea and bleeding.
Ebola cases of the highly contagious Bundibugyo variant of the virus have now also been confirmed in East African Kenya and West African Nigeria. So far, nine infections, including two deaths, have been confirmed in Kenya after a patient from Congo traveled to the capital Nairobi via Uganda.
The patient in Nigeria, the wife of a Swiss diplomat, fell ill after a trip to Uganda in East Africa. According to the health authorities, exactly where the Swiss woman became infected with Ebola is still being investigated. The patient was flown to Switzerland.
The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain because there is currently neither a special vaccine nor a special therapy for the Ebola pathogen of the Bundibugyo type. In addition, in the initial phase of an infection with the Bundibugyo pathogen, it is easy to confuse it with malaria, for example. This can contribute to delayed isolation and treatment of patients.
However, clinical trials to test two antiviral therapy methods have been running since July. In addition, series of tests on vaccines are being carried out. So far, it has been investigated whether the Ebola vaccine Ervebo also protects against the Bundibugyo type.
Ervebo is currently only approved and recommended for Ebola virus disease – previously called Zaire Ebola virus. Additional tests could begin in just a few weeks with two vaccines that were specifically developed against Bundibugyo, a WHO representative in Congo announced.