EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - CONGO DR
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Sat 15 Sep 2007
Source: Agence France Presse (AFP) report [edited]
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iUw ... zV_o35VZ9Q>
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) urgently
want to find about 100 people believed to have been close to Ebola
victims and to contain an outbreak that may have taken almost 170
lives, they said Fri [14 Sep 2007]. "We are looking for all people
who may have been in contact with the sick who are presenting
symptoms of Ebola or of shigellosis," Secretary General Benoit
Kebelo, a senior Health Ministry official, told AFP.
The authorities want to stop an epidemic of Ebola, an incurable
haemorrhagic fever that kills between 50 and 90 percent of those
infected, depending on the strain and the speed of intervention to
treat symptoms. "We're looking for around 100 people, especially in
the Kampungu zone," said Kebelo, referring to the epicentre of the
epidemic, some 300 km (185 miles) from the provincial capital of Kananga.
Officials fear that highly contagious Ebola, for which there is no
known cure, may have claimed most of 169 lives out of 376 cases since
April 2007. However, some may be due to the simultaneous appearance
of the _Shigella_ strain of infectious dysentery, which is treatable
by antibiotics. Kebelo said that since the outbreaks were 1st
detected at the end of April 2007, 5 cases of Ebola and one of
Shigella had been formally confirmed by international laboratories.
But for the broader picture, "you must approach these numbers with
caution," warned Kebelo, who heads a joint ministerial task force
coordinating with the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), the US
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and a team from Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) [Medicins sans Frontieres]. "There are symptoms that
could correspond to other illnesses, and we don't know yet what the
true scope of Ebola or shigellosis is," he said.
The main aim of the government was to prevent an epidemic like that
of 1976, when almost 500 people died in what was then Zaire and [in]
a neighbouring part of Sudan. "Our priority is to raise people's
awareness, stop villagers panicking and fleeing, prevent gatherings
at, for example, funerals and ensure that every suspect case gets to
a health centre immediately," Kebelo said.
The health ministry has deployed "about 100" doctors, nurses,
logistics staff and educators in the danger zone, but these teams
need bicycles to get around the region, the coordinator added.
Belgian MSF teams in the area have been reinforced since late August
2007 after confirmation of the 1st new Ebola case in the country,
where the disease was 1st identified in 1976. The WHO has also sent a
delegation from Geneva with medical supplies and protective clothing
for health staff. "We've set up a quarantine unit in a shed near the
Kampungu health centre," MSF-Belgium coordinator in DRC, Sylvaine
Lonlas, told AFP. "On Thursday night [13 Sep 2007], we had 3 patients
in serious condition and total isolation, and 2 under moderate
surveillance. Six others are convalescing and come back every day for
a check-up."
Ebola's survival rate can be increased by quarantine and swift help
for those infected, who risk high fever, rapid dehydration, internal
haemorrhage and blood loss. The Atlanta-based CDC -- which identified
one of the 1st Ebola cases -- is expected shortly to send an
epidemiologist and set up an on-site laboratory for a more precise
diagnosis of cases, several medical sources told AFP.
The government of Angola, whose northern and northeastern provinces
border Kasai Occidentale, placed health authorities in these regions
on high alert for Ebola on Friday [14 Sep 2007] in response to the
DRC outbreak. After it reappeared in Sudan in 1979, Ebola, which was
named after a river in Equateur province, where it was 1st identified
in 1976, suddenly swept Zaire again in 1995, claiming 245 lives out
of the 315 registered cases.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail <
promed@promedmail.org>
[This update reconfirms that 5 cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever have
been confirmed since April 2007 in the Kampungu zone of the Kasai
Occidentale Province of the DRC (map accessible at
<
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/c ... _pol98.jpg>. The
true nature of the outbreak and the extent to which it is complicated
by the occurrence of other infections are still unclear, and further
information is awaited. - Mod.CP]
