DRC confirms more Ebola cases
2007-10-03 08:44
Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo's health minister announced on Tuesday a fresh case of the feared Ebola virus, bringing the number of cases confirmed in the Kasai Occidental region to 25.
Victor Makwenge Kaput said: "The new case of Ebola, which has just been confirmed, comes from the Kampungu zone," the epicentre of the current outbreak.
Kampungu was about 150km northwest of the regional capital, Katanga. The confirmed result came from a test sample obtained last Saturday, Kaput added.
He added: "That means that the virus is still circulating in this zone and that the epidemic is not over, even if we have seen a reduction in the number of suspect cases and deaths."
According to Kaput, 10 people had so far died from the latest outbreak and another 49 suspected cases on top of the 25 confirmed were being investigated.
But the number of admissions to an isolation unit in Kampungu, a village of 9 000 people, was down from previous weeks, according to the aid group.
Van Herp said: "We are close to controlling the Ebola outbreak. But, we remain vigilant as the virus is still circulating in some of the neighbouring villages."
Aid group Doctors Without Borders was still actively looking for suspect cases of the highly contagious disease in about 20 villages within a 30km radius of the epicentre.
The virus was difficult to track because it had an incubation period of 21 days. The visible symptoms included fever, bloody diarrhoea and visible haemorrhaging.