Virus World

The wife of a survivor of a large Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has died from the disease nearly 8 months after the outbreak was declared over, WHO said, raising concerns about a resurgence of the virus.According to WHO, the DRC Ministry of Health reported the new case in Butembo, a city in North Kivu, the eastern province where the 2018-2020 outbreak took place.  The woman, whose samples tested positive for Ebola, sought medical attention for Ebola-like symptoms and later died. So far, more than 70 contacts have been identified, WHO said. “The expertise and capacity of local health teams has been critical in detecting this new Ebola case and paving the way for a timely response,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti, MBBS, MSc, said in a press release. “WHO is providing support to local and national health authorities to quickly trace, identify and treat the contacts to curtail the further spread of the virus.”

 

The North Kivu outbreak lasted nearly 2 years and was declared over in June 2020. There were 3,481 cases and 2,299 deaths attributed to the outbreak, and more than 1,160 people recovered. It was the second largest Ebola outbreak on record after the West African epidemic, which lasted from 2014-2016 and killed more than 11,000 people. WHO reported that genome sequencing is currently underway to identify the strain of Ebola the woman had and to determine if it is linked to the previous outbreak. It is unclear if the woman had been vaccinated against Ebola or how she was infected. WHO warned last year that the region could see flare-ups of Ebola, which occurred frequently following the West African epidemic. Ebola survivors who no longer have symptoms can still carry the virus — in semen, for example — allowing for its reintroduction.