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The new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to take $1m from the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency fund in order to curtail it and from spreading to other Africa and sub- Sahara countries.
An Ebola outbreak has been declared in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
There are two confirmed cases of the virus and 17 deaths, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
The last Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo was in 2017 and killed four people.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it has released an emergency fund of $1m from its contingency fund to support the response activities for the next three months and has deployed more than 50 experts to work with the goal of stopping the spread of Ebola to surrounding provinces and countries.
The outbreak declaration was made after laboratory results confirmed two cases of Ebola out of a sample of five suspected patients, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
“Our top priority is to get to Bikoro to work alongside the government to reduce the loss of life and suffering related to this new Ebola virus disease outbreak,” said Peter Salama, WHO deputy director-general, Emergency Preparedness and Response.
“Working with partners and responding early and in a coordinated way will be vital to containing this deadly disease.”
The latest outbreak is the ninth time an Ebola outbreak has been recorded in the DR Congo, since the discovery of the virus in the country in 1976.
More than 11,000 dead have been recorded across six countries in West Africa including Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
“We know that addressing this outbreak will require a comprehensive and coordinated response”, said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“We will gather more samples, conduct contact tracing, engage the communities with messages on prevention and control, and put in place methods for improving data collection and sharing,”
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated; the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
