Geneva, June 4 (IANS) The World Health Organization (WHO) said at a press conference in Geneva that with concerted efforts and coordination, the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is catching up. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who just returned from a visit to the DRC, said on Wednesday (local time) that he was very encouraged by the level of commitment he saw in the country. “What I saw gave me hope, although challenges remain….
Latest Bundibugyo strain News & Updates
Dar es Salaam, June 1 (IANS) The East African Community (EAC) will convene an extraordinary virtual meeting of health ministers from June 1 to 2 to coordinate a regional response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak affecting parts of East Africa, the regional bloc has said in a statement. The meeting will focus on strategies to contain the outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is currently no licensed vaccine or specific treatment, according to the statement…
New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) India has dispatched emergency pharmaceutical supplies as part of efforts to contain the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).The Ethiopia‑headquartered Africa CDC said in a social media post that the consignment, donated by the Government of India, was received in Uganda by its Eastern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre and will be deployed to affected communitie…
Kinshasa, May 27 (IANS) The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still at the beginning of its latest Ebola outbreak and may need up to six months to contain it, health minister Roger Kamba has said. The number of people showing symptoms compatible with Ebola had risen to around 1,000, while 101 cases had been laboratory-confirmed, Kamba told a press briefing.He put probable deaths at about 220 till late Tuesday evening, with around 17 deaths confirmed by testing, and said about 3,600 conta…
Moscow/Cape Town, May 27 (IANS) Russia has announced that its scientists have developed a new vaccine for the new strain of the Ebola virus linked to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Russian Embassy in South Africa took to social media ‘X’ on Tuesday (local time) and said, “Russian scientists have developed a vaccine against a new Ebola strain, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced. According to the Russian scientists, the vaccine may also protect against the rare…
Kinshasa, May 27 (IANS) The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) remains at an early stage, but infections and deaths continue to rise, Health Minister Roger Kamba said.Health authorities have identified around 1,000 suspected cases in affected areas, of which 101 have tested positive, Kamba told a press conference.Preliminary figures show that about 200 to 220 deaths are believed to be linked to the outbreak, while 17 deaths have been confirmed through laboratory te…
Kinshasa, May 24 (IANS) The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has temporarily suspended all passenger flights to and from Bunia, the capital of the northeastern Ituri Province that is the epicentre of the ongoing Ebola outbreak, the Ministry of Transport have said. An Ebola outbreak was declared in Ituri on May 15, with Bunia among the main affected areas. According to an official statement on Saturday (local time), no aircraft will be allowed to land at or take off from B…
Geneva, May 23 (IANS) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has said that he is allocating up to $60 million from the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and the wider region.”We need to get ahead of this Ebola outbreak,” Fletcher said on Friday in a statement.While the humanitarian community is fully mobilised, he said, “the epidemiological context is challenging: the…
Kigali, May 17 (IANS) The border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the former’s Rubavu District were closed on Sunday following the Ebola outbreak in DRC, an official said.The Mayor of Rubavu District in Rwanda’s Western Province, Prosper Mulindwa, told local media that the closure of the borders linking Goma and Rubavu-Gisenyi border will remain in place for an indefinite period as part of measures aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly disease.”The borders …
Kinshasa, May 16 (IANS) Roger Kamba, health minister of Congo, warned Saturday that the newly declared Ebola outbreak in the eastern province of Ituri involves the Bundibugyo strain, which has a high fatality rate and carries a significant risk of further spread.”The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine and no specific treatment,” Kamba told a press briefing in the capital Kinshasa, adding that the strain has “a very high lethality rate which can reach 50 per cent.”Congo declared a new Ebola outbrea…