Officials Search in DR Congo for Ebola victims

by apple_lipsis | September 14, 2007 at 02:25 pm

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Two days ago the BBC reported an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in the DR Congo. It is said to have killed 166 people and infected 372 others. In an effort to stop the outbreak health officials are searching for 100 people who may have come in contact with the virus.

"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 kilometres (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. However, some may be due to the simultaneous
appearance of the Shigella strand of infectious dysentery, which is
treatable by antibiotics.