Ebola outbreak in DRC?
2006-03-15 00:04
Kinshasa - Two people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after displaying symptoms similar to those caused by the deadly Ebola virus, the World Health Organisation said.
The victims were a rickshaw driver and one of his passengers. The two died in Bumba, 500km north of Mbandaka, after suffering haemorrhagic fever, the WHO said on Monday.
Florent Ekwanza, the WHO's head of epidemiology in the DRC, said a third person, the wife of the driver, had "presented with the same symptoms as her husband and is in the care of Bumba general hospital, where WHO teams were dispatched".
Swabs taken from the bodies of the two dead victims would be sent to South Africa to be tested for Ebola, he added.
Ebola, one of the world's most feared and contagious diseases, causes raging fever and massive haemorrhaging. In between 60% and 90% of cases, death follows within a few days.
Two previous outbreaks in the former Zaire - one in 1976 and one in 1995 - killed about 525 people, according to health ministry figures.
The virus, transported in infected blood, semen and possibly urine and respiratory droplets, takes three weeks to incubate
- AFP