North Kivu in east DRC was declared Ebola-free in May 2021
A new case of Ebola was confirmed in Butsili, North Kivu province of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country’s health ministry confirmed.
The province was declared Ebola-free in May 2021. The fresh infection was detected in a three-year-old who died October 6, 2021 after suffering symptoms of the disease, according to the Goma branch of the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).
As many as 100 contacts of the deceased have been traced for monitoring symptoms, according to a statement by the country’s health ministry.
The neighbourhood in east DRC is located near the epicentres of the two recent outbreaks: Beni town that was affected in 2018-2020 and Butembo city that suffered a resurgence in February 2021.
As many as 11 people were infected and six lost their lives in the three months of the breakout this year. It was the 12th since the first cases of the disease were detected in 1976 in South Sudan and a village near the Ebola river in Congo.
The first case during this surge was recorded in a woman who died of the infection on February 3. Her husband had contracted and recovered from the infection last year during the country’s most serious outbreak that claimed 2,299 lives and was the second-largest in the world.
Health officials are yet to ascertain if the new case is linked to the previous outbreaks but the World Health Organization (WHO) mentioned that it is usual for sporadic outbreaks to occur after major outbreaks.
“WHO is supporting health authorities to investigate the new Ebola case,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
Beni is a commercial hub with close ties with neighbouring countries Uganda and Rwanda, noted the United Nations health agency.
The response mounted by the health authorities of the province was strengthened by the local expertise and community awareness created during the repeated outbreaks in the recent years.
In recent years, the country’s capacity of local laboratory technicians, contact tracers and vaccination teams was strengthened by the international health organisation.
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