DR Congo: Concern As Ebola Cases Reach More Than 1000

Ebola Cases Increasing In Congo, Health Ministry Laments

The number of Ebola cases in the Republic of Congo has exceeded 1,000, the country’s health ministry has disclosed.

The second-largest outbreak of the virus continues to wreak havoc in the central African country.

“Behind these numbers are several hundred Congolese families directly affected by the virus and hundreds of orphans,” Health Minister Oly Kalenga said in a statement.

Kalenga described the outbreak as “a human and social tragedy.”

Though Naija News reports that the government declared an end the outbreak of the disease in the west of the country in June 2018, it returned to take captive of eastern Cong,  killing a total of 629

Some 320 people had recovered, placing the average survival rate within treatment centres at more than 60 percent, the ministry statement said.

More than 91,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus since August, it added.

Authorities and aid groups have struggled to do their jobs in the dangerous eastern region where numerous militias operate, most fighting over the country’s rich natural resources.

Ebola is a highly infectious disease that causes a fever and often leads to massive internal bleeding and death.