A new outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo is believed to have killed 33 people in the east of the country, the health ministry said Saturday. Thirteen Ebola cases have been confirmed since the fresh outbreak was declared on August 1 in North Kivu province.
While just three of the fatalities have been among the 13 confirmed cases, the death toll is believed to have risen to 33, the health authorities said in a bulletin Saturday. Containing an Ebola outbreak in a "war zone" in the Democratic Republic of Congo is among the most difficult challenges the World Health Organization has faced, a top WHO official said Friday.
In North Kivu, health workers will have to navigate their response among more than 100 armed groups, 20 of whom are "highly active," WHO's emergency response chief Peter Salama told reporters. The outbreak in North Kivu in eastern DRC was declared a week after WHO and the Kinshasa government hailed the end of an earlier Ebola flareup in northwestern Equateur province, which killed 33 people. As with the earlier outbreak,"vaccinations will be an integral part of the response," the health ministry said Saturday.