Deadly ebola outbreak strikes southern DRC

By Miriam Mannak (from Lubumbashi / DRC)

An ebola outbreak in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed nine people. About 92 are believed to be infected with the deadly virus.

The epicenter of the outbreak is Kampungu, a village in the DRC's Western Kasai province. The first case recorded was a premature baby, who died in the end of November. Shortly after the infant's burial it’s 18-year-old mother and various other people who attended the funeral died as well, including the grandparents.  

Despite the fatalities were believed to be linked with ebola, the authorities had to await the outcome of blood tests of patients prior to publically comfirm the actual cause of the deaths.

Meanwhile, the organisation Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres has sent a team of Ebola specialists from Kinshasa and Brussels to the affected area and an isolation ward in the village of Kampungu is being constructed. 

Although ebola occurs regularly in the DRC, this outbreak is being considered to be slightly peculiar.  According to the authorities, it is for the first time that the virus struck the same area twice. Last year, an epidemic killed 187 people in Kampungu.  More than 400 inhabitants of the region were believed to be infected.

Ebola is a deadly, haemorrhagic  and extremely contagious viral disease of which four types exist: Ebola Sudan, E. Zaire, E. Ivory Coast and E. Reston, of which the latter originates in Asia and has never been reported to cause human disease. Ebola Zaire - which occurs in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire)- is the most fatal type. About 80%of infections end with death.

As no cure exists, the only manner to deal with the virus is to isolate patients and to prevent the disease form spreading form person to pserson.

The disease's symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pains, and later vomiting and diarrhoea and occur after an incubation period of approximately 12 days. In the course of the disease, patients start bleeding from the eyes, mouth and other body cavities. The illness kills between 50 and 90 percent of its victims.

Scientists still have to figure out where the disease comes from and by what it is caused. In 1999, the virus was found for the first time small mammals, including shrews and rodents. Prior that, ebola had been only found in humans and primates.