March 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requiring airlines to collect contact information for all passengers from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid two separate Ebola outbreaks in the African countries. Link.
Sequencing of samples suggests that cases are linked to cases in the area during the 2018–2020 outbreak and likely caused by a persistent infection in a survivor that led to either a relapse or sexual transmission of the virus. Link
CDC is working with the MOH, World Health Organization, and partners to implement response activities to stop the spread of the virus and end the outbreak.
February 2021
On 7 February 2021, the Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease after a laboratory-confirmed case was detected. Since then, and as of 14 February, four cases and two deaths have been reported in the North Kivu province in the eastern part of the DRC, where the 10th outbreak in the DRC of Ebola virus disease, which resulted in 3 470 cases including 2 287 deaths, was declared over in June 2020. This current outbreak constitutes the 12th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC.
June 2020
The World Health Organization has just announced that an outbreak has been detected northwest of Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Équateur province. This comes at a particularly difficult time in the Congo as it has just come to the end of a long outbreak in the eastern part of the county. The country also struggles with the world’s larges outbreak of measles and also has COVID-19 link
This is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 11th outbreak of Ebola since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976.It is named after the Ebola River in the Congo. Six Ebola cases have been identified in Wangata in the Équateur province, of which four have died and two are alive and under care. It is expected that more people will be identified with the disease as surveillance testing increases. New outbreaks of Ebola are expected given the existence of the virus in animal reservoirs in many parts of the country. link
The Democratic Republic of the Congo was about to declare an official end to an Ebola epidemic on the eastern side of the country that had lasted nearly two years and killed more than 2,275 people. Then, with just two days to go, a new case was found, and the outbreak could not be declared over.
People can get Ebola through direct contact with an infected animal (bat or nonhuman primate) or a sick or dead person infected with Ebola virus. Ebola causes fever, stomach pain and weakness.
It is unclear how Ebola re-emerged in this region as the country has been under travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
See our blog on Ebola in March 2020 for more detailed information on Ebola. link
Cases reported
COVID-19 to 31st May 2020
- 3195 cases have been reported
- 72 deaths
Measles since 2019 to date
- 369 520 measles cases have been reported
- 6779 deaths
Ebola declared 1st June 2020 Équateur province.
- 6 cases have been reported
- 4 dead
- 2 alive and undergoing treatment
Vaccine
The European Commission approved rVSV-ZEBOV (tradename “Ervebo”) Ebola vaccine in November 2019. It is a single dose vaccine produced by Merck link. In December 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved rVSV-ZEBOV (tradename “Ervebo”) for the prevention of Ebola. The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine has been found to be safe and protective against only the Zaire ebolavirus species of ebolavirus. link
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