Last Updated on April 13, 2020, 8:16 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has recorded the second death due to Ebola in days after more than seven weeks without the appearance of a new case of Ebola.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was set on Sunday to mark an end to the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus on record when a case was confirmed on Friday in the eastern city of Beni.
The outbreak has already killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018.
Boubacar Diallo, deputy incident manager for the WHO’s Ebola response, said that the latest victim of the virus was an 11-month-old girl, who was treated at the same health centre as the last case of the virus which was a 26-year-old electrician.
Officials have said that it is not yet clear that how the electrician had contracted Ebola. The electrician had no known contact with any other Ebola patients, and also he was not a survivor of the virus who could have contracted the virus again.
One-off transmissions or Flare-ups are common towards the end of Ebola outbreaks, and the Government has said that a new case of the virus does not necessarily mean that the virus would spread out of control again.
Ebola causes bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and transmits among the humans through bodily fluids.
During this outbreak, the virus has killed about two-thirds of those people who were infected.
The World Health Organization WHO had identified 215 people who came into contact with the electrician, which included 53 health workers at three facilities which the man had visited before he died.
All but one of the health workers had already been vaccinated for the virus.
Two new vaccines have assisted in containing the virus, though public mistrust and rebel attacks have prevented the health workers from reaching some hard-hit areas with the vaccines.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
