DR Congo reports Ebola outbreak near Uganda border

Aug 21 2012

"Nine people have died in an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Felix Kabangue said on Saturday," Agence France-Presse reports (8/18). "Congolese health officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) Friday, according to a WHO Global Alert and Response (GAR)," Examiner.com adds (Herriman, 8/17). "The outbreak is in Isiro, a busy town in Democratic Republic of Congo's Oriental province, which shares a border with Uganda, but the strain of the deadly disease is different to the one that killed 16 there last month, [Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)] said," Reuters writes (8/18).

"There is no link between both epidemics at this moment," Anja de Weggheleire, area medical coordinator for MSF, told BBC News, according to the news service. "Not every person who develops the disease will develop clear symptoms that are recognized as Ebola. For the moment it seems that there are not that many cases but the exact number of cases is unknown," she added, BBC writes (8/18). "Ebola is fatal in about 50 to 90 percent of cases, with victims bleeding from body orifices before dying in the most severe instances," Al Jazeera reports, noting, "It is transmitted to humans from monkeys and birds" (8/19).