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UN:
EBOLA VIRUS OUTBREAK IN CENTRAL DR CONGO CLAIMS 160 LIVES - UN HEALTH
AGENCY: 11/9/2007 (MaximsNews.com, U.N.) |
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 11 September 2007 – At
least 160 people have died in an outbreak of the highly lethal haemorrhagic
Ebola virus in the centre of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the
United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today, announcing that
it is rushing medical and supplies to the region to try to contain the disease.
Laboratory
analysis conducted in Gabon and the United States on samples taken from cases in
the outbreak have confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus, which causes death
in 50 to 90 per cent of cases.
WHO said
some of the samples also show the presence of a type of dysentery, which is
complicating the treatment of victims, who are concentrated in the Mweka and
Lwebo areas of DRC’s Kasai Occidental province.
So far
there have been 372 confirmed cases and 166 deaths, according to WHO, while
Radio Okapi – which is part-operated by the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC
(MONUC) – reported today that there have been 168 deaths.
DRC
health ministry officials are leading the response to the outbreak, but WHO said
it was providing staff, supplies and equipment to the areas affected and it was
also mobilizing a team of national and international experts to implement
strategies to try to limit the size of the outbreak.
The
Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs
or other bodily fluids of infected persons or animals such as chimpanzees,
gorillas, monkeys and antelopes, and it has an incubation period of two to 21
days.
Health-care
workers have frequently been infected while treating sufferers because of the
lack of adequate infection control precautions in affected countries in Central
Africa. Burial ceremonies also can play a role in transmitting the virus when
mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person.
Sufferers
can experience fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and sore throats,
as well as vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes and impaired kidney and liver function.
In the most severe cases, the virus can lead to both external and internal
bleeding.
WHO said
there is no indication yet of any need to impose trade or travel restrictions
with the DRC as a result of the outbreak.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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