On Aug. 26, the Democratic Republic of Congo informed the
World Health Organization, or WHO, that Ebola hemorrhagic
fever has shown up within its borders. So far, 13 people
have died. This country, also known as the DRC, is located
in central Africa.

Doctors without Borders has confirmed the news. (The
medical group’s French name is Médecins sans
Frontières). “We received confirmation on Sunday that four
of the samples our team took last week have tested positive
for Ebola virus,” Jeroen Beijnberger said. He is the group’s
medical leader in the DRC.

Doctors without Borders has worked in the DRC for more
than 30 years. It is now sending doctors, nurses and other
experts “to the epicenter of the outbreak,” the group said in
a statement on its website.

A pregnant woman living in Ikanamongo Villlage was the
first person to take sick in this new outbreak, according to
the WHO. She had butchered a wild animal that her
husband had killed for dinner. People in many parts of
Africa eat such wild game, known as bush meat. If those
animals are infected, the virus can be picked up by
touching their blood.

The woman developed a mystery disease and fever. She
died at a local clinic on August 11. A doctor, two nurses
and two other clinic employees had contact with her body
as it was prepared for release. Those workers took sick the
next week and have since died.

In all, 24 people became sick with a fever and illness
between July 28 and Aug. 18. Of the 11 who have survived,
all are now in quarantine, the WHO says. Neither the
pregnant woman nor any of her family and friends had
traveled to the West African countries currently battling an
enormous Ebola epidemic. That’s why the WHO is now
reporting that the DRC outbreak appears unrelated to that
one in West Africa.

As in the DRC outbreak, health-care workers have been on
the front lines of exposure in West Africa. And they have
paid a price for their heroic work. More than 240 of them
have already developed Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria,
and Sierra Leone, the WHO announced on Aug. 25. Among
the estimated 1,427 people that Ebola killed so far in those
four countries, this year, 120 were health-care workers.

Ebola takes its name from where it first showed up in 1976.
That was near the Ebola River in what was then Zaire. In
1997, the country changed its name to the Democratic
Republic of Congo. The new infections showed up in a
remote region there known as Equateur province.


source
https://student.societyforscience.org/article/ebola-emerges-congo

I just hope Nigeria has contained it, it will swell our prestige in Africa and beyond