Ebola death toll rises to 200 in Congo
TNN Bureau. Updated: 11/11/2018 1:20:37 PM
World
Kinshasa, Nov 11: The death toll in the latest Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 200 lives.
So far a total of 298 cases of hemorrhagic fever have been reported in the region by health ministry which includes 263 confirmed and 35 probable cases, since the declaration of this tenth Ebola epidemic in the DRC since 1976, says BBC.
About half of the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.
The virus is spread via small amounts of bodily fluid and infection often proves fatal as it is spreading in the northeastern region of North Kivu also, which is home to a clutch of armed groups.
Congo has also previously suffered civil war and political upheaval from years and is going through a very tough situation because in September, vaccinations were suspected in Beni when a rebel group launched an attack that lasted several hours.
However, health minister Oly Ilunga said armed rebels were continuing to harass medical teams which began on August 8 and has so far inoculated about 25,000 people.
In the latest update, the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the lack of security was posing the greatest challenge in countering the current epidemic.