An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is probably linked to 136 deaths, the Central African nation’s Health Minister has said.
Samuel Roger Kamba told a press briefing in the capital Kinshasa on Tuesday (19 May) that there were 543 suspected cases of the illness and 32 confirmed positive cases in the DRC.
"We have about 32 positive cases from the samples we received. 32 cases are positive. [...] We are today at 136 probable deaths linked to the disease,” he said.
"We have 69 patients who are in our treatment centres. [...] We are at around 543 probable patients in the community. And so, this is the situation of the disease today. And we are indeed continuing the active search for all cases,” Kamba added.
The outbreak has alarmed experts because it was able to spread for weeks undetected across a densely populated area ravaged by widespread armed violence.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday (16 May), the first time a WHO chief has done so before convening an emergency committee.
A previous outbreak between 2018 and 2020 in eastern DRC was the second deadliest on record, killing nearly 2,300 people.
Around half of people who contract Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person or animal, die from the disease, according to the WHO.
Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said three vaccines were currently in development for the virus.
“There is the first vaccine, as we said, the Ervebo Merck vaccine. That is the one we are pushing the most, with some specificities we are studying,” he said.
“The second is the ChAdOx vaccine from the UK. And the third is the vaccine called VSV-BDBV. That comes from Texas.”
Meanwhile, a U.S. citizen who contracted the virus in the DRC, has been transferred to Germany for treatment, the U.S. CDC said on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said it would fund up to 50 treatment clinics in Ebola-affected regions of the DRC and Uganda.
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One hundred years after the First World War and more than eighty years after the devastation of the Second World War gave rise to the United Nations, humanity once again finds itself living in an age of permanent crisis.
Flights arriving at Catania airport in eastern Sicily were suspended after volcanic ash from a new eruption of Mount Etna drifted into the airspace around the airport, disrupting operations at one of Italy’s busiest aviation hubs.
For months, efforts to secure the Red Sea have focused on what is happening in the water. Naval deployments have increased, governments have expanded maritime cooperation and shipping companies have adapted to persistent security threats.
Greenland has issued a “strong warning” to a U.S. oil company linked to President Donald Trump after drilling equipment was brought ashore without the required government approvals, according to British media.
Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions.
Kyrgyzstan has proposed hosting part of Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries’ warehouse and logistics network, aiming to reduce supply-chain risks and strengthen trade with Russia.
North Korea has deployed troops, weapons and now, according to a Ukrainian intelligence official, a missile unit to support Russia's war against Ukraine, marking Pyongyang's most significant involvement in a war since the 1950s.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Iran to pay compensation for decades of deaths and damage, adding a new demand to peace talks as Tehran seeks compensation and sanctions relief before reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
A criminal court in Damascus has sentenced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.
Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom plans to increase its workforce at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant to 100 specialists by the autumn, depending on the security situation and progress toward a halt in hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
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