UN agency confirms outbreak in Cuvette-Ouest as Ebola

An outbreak of acute haemorrhagic fever in the Republic of Congo's Cuvette-Ouest Region is the deadly Ebola disease, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday. By Tuesday, WHO said, a total of 11 cases, among them nine deaths, had been reported in the districts of Etoumbi and Mbomo. Of these cases, one case was laboratory-confirmed and 10 epidemiologically linked. Two research facilities in the neighbouring Gabon, the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever in one sample, WHO said. It said 81 contacts were being monitored; 68 in Etoumbi and 13 in Mbomo. WHO added that the Ministry of Health, the WHO Regional Office for Africa and the medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, were carrying out surveillance, following up contacts and raising awareness about the disease among the public in the affected districts. The deaths from Ebola have occurred since 27 April in Etoumbi and Mbomo districts. There is no known cure for Ebola, which is transmitted via infected body fluids and kills 50 percent to 90 percent of its victims, depending on the strain. The disease damages blood vessels and can cause bleeding, diarrhoea and shock. Its worst outbreak, in 1995, killed at least 250 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On 12 May, Minister of Health Alphonse Gando urged the public in the affected districts to "absolutely avoid all contact with patients, even if they are relatives and, above all, not touch dead animals in the forest". Nearly 150 people died of Ebola in 2003 in Cuvette-Ouest. Neighbouring Gabon also had outbreaks in 2001 and 2002.