30 December 2008
Kinshasha — Eleven people have died in a remote area of central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the presence of the Ebola virus has been confirmed, according to health officials.
The 11 were among a few dozen people suspected to be infected with the deadly virus near the village of Kaluemba in Kasai Occidental Province.
DRC Health Minister August Mopipi said the symptoms of those who died - fever, bloody vomit and diarrhoea, muscular pains - were evidence that they had succumbed to the effects of the Ebola virus.
"The outbreak began on 29 November when an 18-year-old girl gave birth prematurely and both mother and child and people who were nearby died shortly afterwards," said the minister.
Mopipi explained that two samples from the area had been tested at National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa and the Franceville laboratory in Gabon for confirmation. "The Franceville results showed the presence of the Ebola virus," Mopipi said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), however, the samples were taken from two patients who were still alive.
"We only have two confirmed cases," Gregory Härtl of the WHO's Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response unit told IRIN by phone from Geneva.
"We are not sure the 11 deaths were due to Ebola. This is a part of the world where there are many diseases, such as cholera, typhoid and shigellosis," he added.
Härtl noted that some patients in Kaluemba were responding to antibiotics, which would rule out Ebola.
"WHO country and regional staff are working closely with the Ministry of Health. This is a very remote part of the country and transport is extremely limited," he said.
"Pockets, or suspected cases, of Ebola have been recorded with increasing frequency in villages within the Kaluemba health area where the disease has been confirmed," said Olivier Chenebon, of the Belgian branch of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières.
"The work of our teams on the ground is important: They should be closely monitoring the 102 people who have been in contact with the dead or the sick. It is possible they might develop the disease and infect others," Chenebon said.
The Ebola epidemic has been reappearing in Mweka District for nearly a year.
The disease is thought to have caused the deaths of many of the 187 people who died in and around Kampungu village, also in Kasai Occidental, during a confirmed outbreak in 2007.
According to Chenebon, the teams touring villages to raise awareness of the disease are telling people not to touch dead animals, not to eat bats or monkeys, and to avoid all contact with human fluids.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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