New acute haemorrhagic fever outbreak suspected in Cuvette Ouest

By 7 November, a total of 12 suspected cases of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome including nine deaths had been reported in Mbomo District in the Cuvette Ouest department of northwestern Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday from Geneva. WHO said that a national Health Ministry team was in the field to assess the situation and to collect clinical samples for diagnosis, which would be tested by the Institut de Recherches pour le Developpement at the Centre International de Recherches Medicales de Franceville, Gabon. A national coordination committee to contain the outbreak has been established in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, assisted by WHO and other international partners. The WHO office in Brazzaville said that the current outbreak might have originated when a family consumed a dead wild boar they had found in the forest, despite public education campaigns to discourage people from eating dead bush meat. On 5 June 2003, the last outbreak of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome, which was determined to have been the Ebola virus, was declared over by Health Minister Alain Moka.