Ebola cases increase in Cuvette Ouest

Eleven people of a total 18 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus had died by Tuesday in the Cuvette Ouest department of northwestern Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported from the capital, Brazzaville. The report follows the latest meeting of the national coordination committee for the fight against Ebola. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, the United States, reported on Tuesday that the first human trial of a vaccine designed to prevent Ebola infection had begun, following successful trials concluded in August on monkeys. NIAID said that outbreaks of Ebola in Africa killed up to 90 percent of those infected. No effective treatment exists for this highly infectious disease, which causes extensive internal bleeding and rapid death. NIAID said that vaccination was the best strategy for preventing or containing the deadly infection. [For the complete NIAID communique, go to: www.niaid.nih.gov] For its part, the Congolese national committee reported that emergency teams that had been dispatched to Mbomo District in Cuvette Ouest, were being met by "increasingly hostile" local populations, despite public education campaigns that have been carried out to inform residents about Ebola and measures necessary to help contain its spread. It also reported that an isolation centre for treatment of suspected Ebola victims was due to be completed on Wednesday, while an updated crisis contingency plan was due to be presented on Friday at the committee's next meeting. The committee was also informed by the armed forces that air transport between Brazzaville and the affected area would amount to 18 million francs CFA (US $33,542) for the first month of operations. On 14, November, the Congolese Ministry of Health, together with WHO confirmed that a new outbreak of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome in Mbomo District was, in fact, the Ebola virus. On 7 November, WHO had reported that 12 suspected cases of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome including nine deaths had been reported in Mbomo. WHO said the current outbreak originated in the village of Mbanza, some 15 km from Mbomo, when a family consumed a dead wild boar they had found in the forest, with the first death occurring on 16 October. It said that although the epidemic was so far confined to Mbomo, there was a "serious risk" of the disease spreading to the nearby districts of Kelle and Itoumbi. [For more information on the Ebola virus, go to www.cdc.gov]