First modification: Last modification:
–
Brazzaville (AFP) – The Democratic Republic of the Congo began this Wednesday the vaccination campaign against Ebola in Mbandaka, a city in the northwest of the country where a new epidemic of hemorrhagic fever has left two dead since April 21, announced the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “is experiencing its 14th epidemic since 1976,” the WHO states in a statement, stressing that “over the years (…) the country has developed local knowledge capable of offering a response effective against Ebola.
“With effective vaccines at hand and the experience of health workers in the DRC (…) we can change the course from now on” of this new epidemic, the WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, considered in the statement. .
According to the organization, some 200 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine were sent to Mbandaka (province of Ecuador) and then to Goma (in the east of the country). The authorities will send other doses progressively in the coming days.
So far, two people have died from the disease since the start of the epidemic, the WHO said. The first was a young man who arrived at the hospital on April 5 and died on the 21st.
The WHO indicates that so far “233 contacts” have been identified, which are “under surveillance”. In addition to vaccination, “a 20-bed Ebola treatment center was opened in Mbandaka.”
In 2020, the Ebola virus left 55 dead in that town, of the 130 registered.
According to experts, the occurrence of Ebola epidemics has become cyclical from April to June since 2018 in the Congolese region of the equator and the following months in the northeast (Kivu, Ituri).
First identified in 1976 in the DRC, the Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from infected animals. Between humans, the virus is transmitted through body fluids.
© 2022 AFP
–
