International aid organizations already stretched to the limit of the largest Ebola outbreak on record, face a second, probably clusters without case report in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ministry of Health yesterday DRC notified the World Health Organization (WHO) epidemic in the north. He said 13 of the 24 people suspected to have contracted Ebola died.
"At that time, it is believed that the epidemic in the DRC is unrelated to the current outbreak in West Africa," said a WHO statement released today. None of patients had traveled to the West African areas where Ebola virus spreads now or had contact with people in these regions. the first results of a laboratory in the DRC also indicate that the disease was not caused by the Ebola Zaire virus, virus species causing the epidemic in West Africa. Since December, the Ebola Zaire virus has sickened at least 2,615 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria 1,427 killed them. It is the largest Ebola outbreak on record.
Although this is the first outbreak in this region, the new epidemic in the DRC is in a region more accustomed to dealing with the virus. "This is the country that has the most experience of dealing with the virus and that gives me some hope," said Stephan Günther, a virologist at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for tropical medicine in Hamburg, Germany, who works currently in a mobile laboratory in Nigeria. DRC (formerly Zaire) has had seven outbreaks, the first in 1976.
"It is important to understand that this epidemic came to the attention of the Government very early and treated by a group of people who know how to control an outbreak of Ebola, "said David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. At the same time, Heymann added, "It is impossible to know at this stage what the country is going to ask and what they can do themselves"
According to the WHO, if the index. new home was a pregnant woman in the Ikanamongo Village in northern DRC. she probably was infected when she butchered a bush animal given to her by her husband. Jonathan Epstein, a veterinary epidemiologist at EcoHealth Alliance in new York, called "almost a classic case." It is known that chimpanzees, bats and other animals can be carriers of the deadly Ebola virus, and pathogen often spills over the human population when people eat infected animals. New epidemics shows "we must also pay attention to the broader situation," Epstein said. "There is a need for more awareness and education." The reduction of risk behaviors such as eating bushmeat is an important public health goal, Heymann agrees. "it's a sign that we really need to seriously consider how to prevent these outbreaks occur," he said.
The infected woman was treated in a private clinic in Isaka Village and died August 11 A doctor and two nurses who treated the woman, and the hygienist and a service agent, themselves infected in the hospital and all later died. "Other deaths were recorded among the parents who attended the index case, people who were in contact with the clinic staff, and those who handled the bodies of the deceased at the funeral," the statement notes WHO. About 80 people who were in contact with patients are being monitored, and more contacts are traced.
Samples from the current outbreak in DRC are tested in a WHO collaborating center in Gabon and the results are expected later today, according to a WHO representative. Outside of Zaire ebolavirus , there are four other species of Ebolavirus :. Sudan, Reston, Bundibugyo and Tai Forest
Of these four, Sudan is by far the most common. Reston virus infection has been documented in humans without causing disease, and the only case of infection with the Tai Forest virus in a human being is a scientist who had conducted an autopsy on an infected chimpanzee. Sudan ebolavirus , on the other hand, has caused several outbreaks and sickened nearly 800 people since it was discovered after an outbreak in Sudan in 1976. About half of the patients died.
The only other Ebola virus that has caused major epidemics is Bundibugyo ebolavirus . It was discovered in an outbreak in Uganda, which began in December 07 and killed 37 people. It two years ago, it caused an epidemic in the DRC
* Ebola files :. Given the current Ebola outbreak unprecedented in terms of the number of people killed and the rapid geographic spread, Science and Science Translational Medicine made a collection of research articles and news on the viral disease available for researchers and the general public.
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