Check out the FAQ,Terms of Service & Disclaimers by clicking the
link. Please register
to be able to post. By viewing this site you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Acknowledge our Disclaimers.
FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster.
The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website.
By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
Where Does Ebola Hide Between Epidemics?
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
February 19, 2003
When villagers in the remote jungles of the Republic of Congo began falling ill last month, scientists quickly suspected Ebola. The virus had been confirmed in tests on the bodies of animals found dead in surrounding forests, and bush meat is a staple among the local population.
Knowing how people may initially have contracted the virus has given medical experts a jumpstart on the epidemic, which has so far killed at least 64 people. But the larger question remains. Where does the deadly Ebola virus hide between outbreaks?
"Primates die from Ebola," just like humans, said Dick Thompson, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, which has sent a team of experts to the region. "The virus must live somewhere else in the environment."
The search for a natural host has eluded scientists ever since the first Ebola epidemics in 1976. The quest is a catch-22. While an outbreak offers the best opportunity to find the natural reservoir, the priority for virus hunters is to contain the epidemic. In the process, the trail often goes cold because the virus kills so swiftly it covers its tracks. Ebola is one of the most contagious viruses known to man. A simple handshake can transmit the disease. Depending on the strain, Ebola kills anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of its victims through massive internal bleeding. Worst of all, there is no cure. Finding out where the virus is hiding between outbreaks would help predict how often it will strike and could aid in the adoption of safety measures. The genetic variability of the virus in its natural host may help design a vaccine.
Immune to Ebola There has long been speculation among scientists that bats are the natural reservoir for Ebola. In scientific experiments, researchers have injected bats with the Ebola virus, and the bats have survived. "You find bats in almost every outbreak," said Bob Swanepoel, head of the Special Pathogens Division at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
Bats were found in the roof of a Sudanese cotton factory where six people died in a 1976 epidemic. A Danish student died of Ebola after visiting a bat-infested cave in Kenya. At least 60 miners in northeastern Congo died from Marburg, an Ebola-related virus that may share Ebola's natural reservoir, during a 1999 outbreak. Six of the seven mining quarries were open, the seventh was located underground with an estimated 30,000 bats living in it. All of the miners who contracted the disease worked in the underground mine.
Swanepoel has collected bats during several Ebola and Marburg outbreaks. "We have seen evidence of Ebola in bats," he said. "But we have never been able to isolate the virus." He believes only a fraction of the bats may host the virus. Catching the right specimens is almost impossible.
Transmitting the Virus
The latest outbreak began after researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society reported a massive decline in ape populations in the Lossi Gorilla Sanctuary in northern Republic of Congo. In mid-December, scientists from the Centre International de Recherches Medicales de Franceville (CIRMF) in neighboring Gabon collected samples from four gorilla and two chimpanzee carcasses and confirmed the presence of Ebola in all six cases.
Even without lab confirmation on the human deaths, scientists are treating this epidemic as an Ebola outbreak. "The clinical presentation of the cases, the high death rates and confirmed reports of primate deaths which tested positive for Ebola all point in that direction," said the WHO's Thompson.
The first victim, or "index case," is believed to have eaten or come in contact with an infected animal. An Ebola epidemic in the same region in 2001, which killed 73 people, was also linked to people eating infected primates. After the initial infection, the virus is usually transmitted from human to human.
Containing the epidemic is particularly difficult because the affected villages are tucked into impenetrable forests about 440 miles (710 kilometers) from Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. Cordoning off the area is impossible. Cultural practices also complicate efforts. Religious rites, for example, dictate that family members wash the body of a dead person before burial.
While past outbreaks have been concentrated in, say, a village, the current epidemic is "multi-centric," or spread over a vast area. This suggests that the natural host for Ebola could also be active over a large area. Scientists have speculated that insects, or maybe birds, could carry the virus.
New Research In December, a Purdue University science team presented new research that links Ebola with birds. According to the study, the outer protein shell of filoviruses, such as Ebola, have a biochemical structure similar to retroviruses carried by birds, making a common evolutionary origin more likely.
"There can be no doubt now that an ancestral virus had a shell that evolved to become the shells of the Ebola virus and bird retroviruses," said David Sanders, the professor who headed the research team. Sanders stresses that his discovery does not prove that birds are the natural reservoir for Ebola. But it makes them more plausible hosts.The prospect of migratory birds carrying Ebola has obvious health implications.
Some scientists already worry that Ebola could mutate and become airborne. Recent outbreaks have suggested it can evolve on its own. All the Ebola subtypes have shown the ability to be spread through airborne particles under research conditions. One strand, Ebola-Reston, may have been transmitted from monkey to monkey through the air in a Virginia science lab. So far there have been no similar transmissions involving humans.
Is it ok to post a tinyurl address if the original addresses are long? If not, I will post the original.
Were there descriptions of bleeding in the outbreak? I didn't see any, but maybe I missed it.
Tinyurl's are fine with me.
There was reference to hemorrhagic symptoms in the ProMed report in my post #10. I questioned the discrepencies in the report in post #19.
Sure am glad they identified the disease - would have preferred it not be Ebola, but at least they have a diagnosis to work with.
"In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or womanhttps://flutrackers.com/forum/core/i...ilies/wink.png), and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot."- Mark TwainReason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. -Thomas Paine
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness
outbreak in southeastern Congo as Ebola fever, officials said Monday
[10 Sep 2007].
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon
confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, and specifically as
Ebola, Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television.
More than 100 people have died of illness in the affected region
since late August [2007].
Congo confirms Ebola outbreak; more than 100 have died since late August [2007]
---------------------
Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness outbreak in southeastern
Congo is Ebola fever.
Congo Health Minister Makwenge Kaput says the U-S Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon have
confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever and specifically Ebola.
Provincial chief medical inspector Jean-Constatin Kanow says more
than 160 people have died of the illness in the affected region since
late August [2007] and nearly 400 have been infected.
He says the infections are mostly in 2 areas, Mweka and Luebo and the
majority of the deaths occurred at the beginning of the outbreak.
Makwenge did not say whether the outbreak has been contained.
Spokesperson Kelly Keith confirms hemorrhagic fever experts at
Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg have been
following the situation and are prepared to deploy a team to the area
if requested.
Experts from the Winnipeg laboratory - which is part of the Public
Health Agency of Canada - are often tapped by the World Health
Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network to help
contain these types of outbreaks.
The special pathogens team has developed a portable lab that can be
safely operated in remote locations with few resources. Being able to
accurately identify cases early has been critical to containment
efforts, because the initial symptoms of hemorrhagic fevers are
similar to those of other diseases which commonly strike in affected areas.
Medical inspectors had previously said people began dying after
high-profile funerals of 2 village chiefs in the region where
relatives usually wash the bodies of the deceased by hand.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions
of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with
infected secretions. It is not known where the initial infection came
from, though medical researchers say it is likely from contact with
an infected animal.
In the past, Congo has seen large outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola,
both hemorrhagic fevers caused by viruses that, in severe cases,
attack the central nervous system and cause bleeding from the eyes,
ears and other parts of the body.
By the end of August [2007], 4 villages had been affected and 217
people had come down with the illness, including 103 who died. About
140 000 people live in the Mweka area.
Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing
245 people. Kikwit is about 300 kilomertres from the site of the
current purported outbreak.
[Ebola virus, a filovirus, has one of the highest case fatalities (up
to 80 percent) of any viral disease except rabies. ProMED-mail
requests further information about the actual numbers of people
infected and fatalities, as well as the specific location and
circumstances of the outbreak in the southeastern part of the
DRC. One hopes that this is not part of the eastern DRC that has
been torn by civil strife and violence, preventing intervention that
would further describe the outbreak and work with local inhabitants
to prevent spread from infected individuals to those in contact,
through exposure to bodily fluids.
[It is curious that according to the above mentioned newswire, the
case fatality rate (CFR) of this outbreak seems to be fairly low for
Ebola hemorrhagic fever with the report of 103 deaths out of 217
cases (CFR 47.5 percent) by the end of August, and now approximately
160 deaths and 400 cases (CFR 40 percent). One is curious to know
the true numbers of cases and deaths, and if information on the viral
strain is available. For a good summary of prior outbreaks of Ebola
hemorrhagic fever outbreaks see the WHO Ebola outbreak chronology
table available at:
<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/facts...en/index1.html>.
Outbreaks of Ebola-Sudan virus have had lower CFRs as a rule than
Ebola-Zaire virus associated outbreaks.
For a map of the DRC highlighting urban areas that includes the 2
above mentioned affected areas of Mweka and Luebo, see
<http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps...df?OpenElement>
(the areas are visible if resolution of the map is increased. One
can also see where they are in relation to Kikwit where the above
mentioned outbreak occurred in 1995. - Mod.MPP]
"In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or womanhttps://flutrackers.com/forum/core/i...ilies/wink.png), and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot."- Mark TwainReason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. -Thomas Paine
Ebola outbreak confirmed in Congo, WHO sending teams
Tue 11 Sep 2007, 8:53 GMT
GENEVA (Reuters) - An outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, a deadly disease for which there is no treatment, has been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Samples from five people have tested positive for the Ebola virus in the southern province of Kasai Occidental, where authorities have reported some 120 deaths among 300 sick people in the past four months, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
Not all these deaths are necessarily due to Ebola however. Other diseases are also suspected to be ravaging the remote region, as some patients have responded to treatment with antibiotics, indicating Shigella disease which is borne by contaminated food or water, he said.
"We know there are five cases confirmed as Ebola. We still believe other things are going on," Hartl said. "We have to get more people on the ground in the area to investigate."
No cases have been reported in the east of the country where heavy fighting in recent weeks between government forces and rebels forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
Ebola, which causes death in 50 to 90 percent of cases, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons. Symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and in some cases bleeding from orifices.
The virus' natural reservoir seems to reside in African rain forests and in areas of the Western Pacific, according to the United Nations health agency. Kasai is east of Kikwit, the site of a major Ebola outbreak in the former Zaire in 1995, which killed 250 among 315 people.
The samples were tested at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and in a laboratory in Gabon, according to Hartl. The WHO on Tuesday activated its Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network, known as GOARN, asking partner health organisations including the Atlanta-based CDC to send epidemiologists and other experts, he said.
"The WHO is in the process now of coordinating international teams to go into the area," Hartl said. It is also important to warn communities that Ebola can be transmitted at burial ceremonies where mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased, he said.
"We have to identify cases and isolate cases, separating Shigella patients from Ebola," Hartl added.
INSHASA, 11 September 2007 (IRIN) - Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have identified a fever outbreak that has claimed at least 167 lives in the southern province of Kasai Occidental as Ebola.
"The results from the referral laboratory in Franceville in Gabon and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] in Atlanta in the United States confirmed the diagnosis of the haemorrhagic viral Ebola fever," health minister Victor Makwenge Kaput said on national television on 10 September.
The Mweka and Luebo health zones were the worst affected by the fever epidemic over the past two months, according to the provincial health inspector, Jean-Constatin Kanow. Mweka has an estimated population of 140,511.
According to Kanow, there have been at least 395 cases, including the fatalities.
"This epidemic evolved without us knowing its exact cause," Makwenge said. The symptoms of those infected led to the suspicion of haemorrhagic fever.
The viral fever is spread through contact with infected people, who initially present with fever, headache, vomiting, colicky abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhoea, followed by severe dehydration and death, Kanow said.
"The symptoms last between five and seven days," he added.
People in the province, as in other parts of the country, are at further risk of contracting the fever due to the lack of observance of safe practices in the handling and disposal of dead bodies.
Two of the victims of the latest outbreak were pastors who came into contact with infected patients in their churches, according to Kanow.
The fever was first recognised on 8 June after the deaths of two village chiefs. Subsequently, all those who assisted in the burial also died, Kanow said.
According to Makwenge, health teams had been mobilised at the local, national, and international level to help deal with the outbreak.
The number of infected persons had increased, but deaths had decreased due to interventions by teams from the health ministry and the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) in affected areas.
"We have asked the WHO to help us in coordinating the response to the epidemic," Makwenge said. He also appealed for calm and adherence to the recommendations of the health teams deployed in the affected areas.
Meanwhile, the government has also put in place measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic to other localities.
According to the government spokesperson, Toussaint Tshilobo, a quarantine had been imposed in the affected areas to prevent the spread of the disease.
The DRC has in the past experienced severe Ebola epidemics - in 1976 in Yambuku in Orientale province, in Kikwit, Bandundu, in 1995 where at least 250 deaths were reported, and in Watsa, Orientale, in 1999.
Sep 11, 2007 (CIDRAP News) ? Five cases of the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever have been confirmed in a 3-month-old disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but another disease may account for some cases in the outbreak, according to news services.
Congolese Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said yesterday that tests in Franceville, Gabon, and at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had confirmed the Ebola diagnosis, according to a report from the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN).
The World Health Organization (WHO) said five samples tested positive and tests on 40 more samples were pending, according to an Associated Press (AP) report published today.
At least 395 cases and 167 deaths have been reported in the outbreak in Kasai Occidental province, provincial health inspector Jean-Constantin Kanow reported in the IRIN story.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said some patients in the outbreak have reported cholera-like symptoms and responded well to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic, which would not work against a viral disease like Ebola, according to a New York Times story today. He said those patients may have contracted Shigella (bacterial) infections.
"There's no way we can be sure at this point how many cases are Shigellaand how many are Ebola," Hartl told the AP.
The WHO issued an alert today urging more doctors to travel to the country to fight the outbreak, according to the AP. Hartl told the Times that the first WHO teams involved in the effort arrived Sep 9 with protective equipment.
Kanow said most of the cases were in the Mweka and Luebo districts and that most of the deaths occurred early in the outbreak, according to the AP. The affected area is about 430 miles southeast of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.
The outbreak was first recognized on Jun 8 after two village chiefs died, according to the IRIN report. All those who assisted in burying the chiefs died, said Kanow.
According to the Times report, CDC officials said six or seven villages were affected by the outbreak, and about 120 of 300 affected people died. Most of those who died were between the ages of 18 and 45 and survived only 4 or 5 days after the first symptoms, the story said.
The WHO had posted an online notice about the Congo outbreak on Aug 31, calling it an unknown illness with high mortality. The statement said more than 50% of the patients were children younger than 10.
Ebola was first recognized in the DRC (then known as Zaire) in 1976, with an outbreak in Yambuku, Orientale province. Since then, the country has had outbreaks in Kikwit, Bandundu province, in 1995, and in Watsa, Orientale province, in 1999, according to the IRIN report.
Ebola outbreaks occurred in the fall of 2003 and in the spring of 2005 in the DRC's immediate western neighbor, the Republic of the Congo.
Ebola is a highly contagious virus that is lethal in about 50% to 90% of cases. Initial symptoms include fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain, according to the CDC. Some patients have both internal and external bleeding. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease.
"In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or womanhttps://flutrackers.com/forum/core/i...ilies/wink.png), and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot."- Mark TwainReason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. -Thomas Paine
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
Thank you for the kind welcome!
There were a few more developments today...
Congo-Kinshasa: Outbreak in Kasai Occidental Confirmed As Ebola
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have identified a fever outbreak that has claimed at least 167 lives in the southern province of Kasai Occidental as Ebola. [snip]
Two of the victims of the latest outbreak were pastors who came into contact with infected patients in their churches, according to Kanow.[snip]
"We have asked the WHO to help us in coordinating the response to the epidemic," Makwenge said. He also appealed for calm and adherence to the recommendations of the health teams deployed in the affected areas.
Meanwhile, the government has also put in place measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic to other localities.
According to the government spokesperson, Toussaint Tshilobo, a quarantine had been imposed in the affected areas to prevent the spread of the disease.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have identified a fever outbreak that has claimed at least 167 lives in the southern province of Kasai Occidental as Ebola.
I did find that they used quarantine in previous outbreaks so perhaps this isn't terribly significant.
There was a post from a scientist in 2003 (which I can't find at the moment) describing some of the problems of quarantine. During an outbreak around 3,000 people who were trying to flee the infected area were at the final checkpoint (I think we might call it a road block.) They were there for days with no food and little water - spreading the virus the entire time.
_________________
"We know what you know, and we know when you knew it"
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
Congo slaps quarantine on Ebola outbreak area
<!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->Tue Sep 11, 10:27 AM ET
<!-- end storyhdr -->KINSHASA (Reuters) - Authorities placed two towns in southern Democratic Republic of Congo in quarantine on Tuesday to contain an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, a deadly disease for which there is no treatment. Health authorities in Congo's southern province of Kasai Occidental had reported more than 160 deaths among 352 sick people in the past four months due to a mystery fever.
Five samples sent to a laboratory in Gabon and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus, Health Minister Victor Makuenge Kaput said late on Monday.
"Precautions have been taken to prevent the epidemic from spreading," he told state television.
Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters on Tuesday the government had imposed quarantine on the areas around Mweka and Luebo to prevent the spread of the disease.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva said it was not clear whether all the deaths had been caused by Ebola as other diseases were also thought to be rife in area.
Some patients had responded to treatment with antibiotics, suggesting Shigella disease which is borne by contaminated food or water, Gregory Hartl said.
"We know there are five cases confirmed as Ebola. We still believe other things are going on. We have to get more people on the ground in the area to investigate."
FEVER AND MUSCLE PAIN
Ebola, which causes death in 50 to 90 percent of cases, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons.
Symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhea and in some cases bleeding from orifices.
The virus's natural reservoir seems to reside in African rain forests and in areas of the Western Pacific, according to the United Nations health agency.
Makuenge urged the population to take precautions, such as washing hands frequently and avoiding contact with infected patients. No cases have been reported in the east of the country, where recent heavy fighting between government forces and rebels forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
Kasai is east of Kikwit, site of a major Ebola outbreak in the former Zaire in 1995 which killed 250 of 315 sufferers.
The WHO on Tuesday activated its Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network, known as GOARN, asking partner health organizations, including the Atlanta-based CDC, to send epidemiologists and other experts, Hartl said.
"The WHO is in the process now of coordinating international teams to go into the area," he said.
It is also important to warn communities that Ebola can be transmitted at burial ceremonies where mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased, he added.
"We have to identify cases and isolate cases, separating Shigella patients from Ebola," Hartl added. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070911/...tic_ebola_dc_1
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
<TABLE class=story-top cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Ebola Virus Outbreak In DR Congo Claims 160 Lives
Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 11:30 am Press Release: United Nations </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--first blockquote gone!-->
Ebola virus outbreak in central DR Congo claims 160 lives - UN health agency
At least 160 people have died in an outbreak of the highly lethal haemorrhagic Ebola virus in the centre of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today, announcing that it is rushing medical and supplies to the region to try to contain the disease. Laboratory analysis conducted in Gabon and the United States on samples taken from cases in the outbreak have confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus, which causes death in 50 to 90 per cent of cases.
WHO said some of the samples also show the presence of a type of dysentery, which is complicating the treatment of victims, who are concentrated in the Mweka and Lwebo areas of DRC's Kasai Occidental province. So far there have been 372 confirmed cases and 166 deaths, according to WHO, while Radio Okapi - which is part-operated by the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC) - reported today that there have been 168 deaths.
DRC health ministry officials are leading the response to the outbreak, but WHO said it was providing staff, supplies and equipment to the areas affected and it was also mobilizing a team of national and international experts to implement strategies to try to limit the size of the outbreak. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons or animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys and antelopes, and it has an incubation period of two to 21 days.
Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating sufferers because of the lack of adequate infection control precautions in affected countries in Central Africa. Burial ceremonies also can play a role in transmitting the virus when mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person.
Sufferers can experience fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and sore throats, as well as vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes and impaired kidney and liver function. In the most severe cases, the virus can lead to both external and internal bleeding. WHO said there is no indication yet of any need to impose trade or travel restrictions with the DRC as a result of the outbreak.http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0709/S00275.htm
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> More than 200 people died in a previous outbreak in Kikwit
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA --><!-- S SF -->An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least five people says the World Health Organisation.
Blood samples from the southern province of Kasai were sent to laboratories specialising in haemorrhagic fever.
More than 100 people have died and many more have fallen sick in a recent fever epidemic in central DR Congo.
Scientists say some deaths could have been from a bacterium called Shigella. <!-- E SF -->
Three months ago, people started falling sick from a mystery virus in several villages around Kananga, the capital of West Kasai region.
<!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->
Emergency response teams are now being sent to DR Congo to try to contain the outbreak. Ebola is untreatable and almost always fatal. It is thought to be transmitted through the consumption of infected bush meat and can also be spread by contact with the blood secretions of infected people. DR Congo's last major Ebola outbreak killed more than 200 people in 1995 in Kikwit, about 400km (249 miles) west of the current outbreak. The last major incidence of the disease was in Uganda in 2001 when more than 400 cases were reported and more than half of the patients died. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
<TABLE xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"><TBODY><TR><TD class=ArticleHead colSpan=2>Experts sound ebola alarm ?<!--head0--></TD></TR><TR><TD class=Byline><!--byline1-->Sashni Pather and Borrie La Grange<!--byline0--></TD><TD class=Published align=right>Published:<!--date1-->Sep 12, 2007<!--date0--></TD></TR><TR><TD class=ArticleHead colSpan=2><HR class=ArticleLine width="100%" SIZE=1></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=200 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=200 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=ArticleImg><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=200 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=storybody width=200> ?What is even scarier is there are no tell-tale signs of the disease?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--blurb1-->Fear that infected travellers arrive in SA.<!--blurb0--> <!--par1--><!--par0--> <!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->South Africa?s medical experts are alarmed by an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo ? fearing that infected travellers could spread the disease here.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->This comes after World Health Organisation officials confirmed yesterday that five people had tested positive for the virus in the Congo. <!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Authorities have reported some ?120 deaths among 300 sick people? over just the past four months, said its spokesman, Gregory Hartl.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Professor Robert Swanepoel , a consultant in the special pathogens unit at South Africa?s National Institute of Communicable Diseases, said while the fatal disease occurred mainly in the Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, infected people are known to travel to South Africa and other parts of the world for medical treatment.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->The World Health Organisation has now activated its global outbreak alert and response network , asking health organisations to send epidemiologists and other medical experts to the Congo.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Ebola, which causes death in 50percent to 90percent of cases, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting and diarrhoea. <!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Foreign affairs ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said: ? An ebola outbreak is an ongoing problem in the region. However, I am not aware of South Africa being asked to assist with any outbreak.?<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Swanepoel said it was not uncommon for medical evacuation companies to transport infected patients to South Africa, as was the case recently when an doctor infected with ebola was brought into the country.<!--par0--> <!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->The doctor, from Nigeria, was treated at the Unitas Hospital, outside Pretoria.<!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Swanepoel said: ?He obviously died as there is no cure for the disease. It is known that people come to South Africa for treatment.?<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Three airlines ? SAA, Hewa Bora Airlines and Kenya Airways ? operate flights between Johannesburg and the Congo capital of Kinshasa.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->SAA is the only carrier that flies direct between the two destinations, four days a week, while the other two carriers have stop-overs in Lumbumbashi and Nairobi respectively.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->SAA said it had noted the reports of ?a suspected haemorrhagic fever outbreak in a remote part of the Congo?.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->SAA spokesperson Sarah Uys said if the situation worsened , passengers would be warned about a possible danger. <!--par0-->
<!--par1-->?But for now we don?t foresee problems,? she said.<!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Swanepoel said viruses such as ebola usually stem from war- torn areas, and regions where there was bad governance.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->He said: ?I can?t explain why this is, but this outbreak in the Congo is yet another in a long succession.?<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Jaco Folmer, medical director of SAA-Netcare Travel Clinics, said the people most at risk were health workers in the affected areas.<!--par0-->
<!--par1-->In 1996, a nurse in Johannesburg was diagnosed with ebola haemorrhagic fever and a frantic search ensued to locate the source, a doctor in Gabon who had sought treatment for his illness in South Africa.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->The nurse died, but the spread of the infection was prevented.<!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Folmer said the risk of contracting the virus was greater when travelling.<!--par0--> <!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->He said: ?Infected people start bleeding from the nose and ears and [should be] kept in strict isolation.<!--par0-->
<!--par1-->?What is even scarier is that there are no tell-tale signs for the disease, so you can?t tell one infected person from another just by looking at them.? <!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
<TABLE xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"><TBODY><TR><TD class=ArticleHead colSpan=2>Ebola outbreak in DRC<!--head0--></TD></TR><TR><TD class=Byline><!--byline1-->AFP<!--byline0--></TD><TD class=Published align=right>Published:<!--date1-->Sep 11, 2007<!--date0--></TD></TR><TR><TD class=ArticleHead colSpan=2><HR class=ArticleLine width="100%" SIZE=1></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=200 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--par1-->GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said today that five cases of the deadly Ebola virus had been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after dozens of people have succumbed to an unidentified illness in recent months.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Five cases of the viral haemorrhagic illness have been confirmed in western Kasai in the centre of the vast African country, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists in Geneva.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Viral haemorrhagic fever causes the patient to bleed under the skin and in severe cases, from the mouth, ears and eyes.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Blood loss, shock and organ failure lead to coma and delirium and, in many cases, to death.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->The WHO is not in a position to say whether the five people confirmed with Ebola are presently alive or dead, she added.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Ebola has killed some 450 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1976.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Local authorities said at the end of August that 68 people had died from an unknown illness within the space of four months in western Kasai.<!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1-->Chaib stressed that another illness other than Ebola could yet be responsible for some of these deaths, possibly the Shigella infectious disease which is less deadly than Ebola. <!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
<!--par1--><!--par0-->
This website is for sale! suntimes.co.za is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, suntimes.co.za has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!
Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease
An infected person was put on a commercial aircraft? Please tell me I misread this.
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Tweet
More than 200 people died in a previous outbreak in Kikwit
?What is even scarier is there are no tell-tale signs of the disease?
she said.<!--par0-->
Comment