Also posted on ebolainfo
24 August 2014 Last updated at 19:42

Ebola outbreak: DR Congo confirms two deaths

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say two people have died from Ebola in the country's north-west.

They are the first reported Ebola cases outside West Africa since the outbreak there began, although it is not clear if they are directly linked to that outbreak.

So far 1,427 people have died from the virus.

The speed and extent of the outbreak has been "unprecedented", the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.

There is no known cure but some affected people have recovered after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp. However, supplies are now exhausted.

Also on Sunday, a British health worker infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone was flown back to the UK on an RAF jet. It is the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus during the current outbreak.

Quarantine zone

Several people died in the past month after contracting an unidentified fever in the Equateur region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Sunday, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said two of eight fever victims had tested positive for Ebola.

He told the BBC a quarantine zone would be set up in a 100-km (62-mile) radius in Boende where the cases had been registered.

He said this marked the seventh outbreak in DRC. The virus was first identified here in 1976 near the Ebola River.

Mr Numbi added that further tests were being carried out.

On Saturday, Sierra Leone parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.

If approved by the president, those caught face up to two years in prison.

The move came after the Ivory Coast closed its land borders to prevent the spread of Ebola on to its territory.

The country has already imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa have taken similar measures.

The WHO says travel bans do not work, and that what is needed is more doctors and officials to help trace those infected with Ebola, as well as more mobile laboratories.

Last week, two US doctors were discharged from a hospital in Liberia after being given the ZMapp drug, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.

Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bloodily fluids. It is one of the world's deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death.

Source:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28922290

According to this news site: http://ugc.news.com.au/world/democratic-republic-of-congo-confirms-first-ebola-outbreak-this-year-who-doctor-struck-down-with-virus/story-fndir2ev-1227035289929 , the two Ebola deaths are NOT related to the current Ebola outbreak.

[ “The results are positive. The Ebola virus is confirmed in DRC,” Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said, referring to tests undertaken on people after an unidentified fever killed 13 in the northwest Equateur province this month. "The two new cases had “no link to (the epidemic) raging in West Africa,” Kabange said, adding that further tests were under way. ]

Could this be another Ebola outbreak, with a different strain?

The article I read over the weekend, I think it was on the ebolainfo.org site, pretty much said it was a new strain.  In a whole different family related to insects from the other hemoragic (sp?) fevers.

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: In West Africa, the largest recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus is spreading. More than 1,400 lives have been lost to a disease that causes horrific bleeding and now there's a new front. As many as 13 people are believed to have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the fifth country to record fatalities. 

Fear of the virus is driving panic. An Ebola clinic has been attacked. But across sub-Saharan Africa, authorities are moving to protect population centres and there are hopes of a medical breakthrough after an American health worker was successfully treated with an experimental drug. Africa correspondent Martin Cuddihy reports. 

MARTIN CUDDIHY, REPORTER: Extraordinary precautions are needed to deal with one of the most deadly viruses on the planet. This is the only laboratory in East Africa where you can test for Ebola and it's in Nairobi. It's a painstaking process and Dr Victor Ofula has been following these procedures non-stop for the past week as Africa tries to deal with this terrifying disease.

VICTOR OFULA, CENTRE FOR VIRUS RESEARCH: Isolation would be one of the things that would make sure that it is done well and all the preventive measures are taken so that the patient does not infect many other people that are (inaudible) in different ways.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: If a patient is suspected of having Ebola, they are brought here, to the Kenyatta National Hospital. It's a very basic facility - a tent. And for now, it's the makeshift Ebola screening clinic. Three patients who flew in from West Africa were detained here while being tested.

VICTOR OFULA: If a sample tests positive, it is important to isolate this patient because one of the things that we know is that some of the relatives or even some of the clinicians can casually handle the patient.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Ebola transfers person-to-person through bodily fluids. Once someone catches the virus, the symptoms are almost identical to the flu or malaria, but they quickly give way to massive internal and external haemorrhaging. Some people bleed to death from every orifice.

NICHOLAS MURAGURI, KENYAN DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL SERVICES: People are really scared. It spreads very, very fast and we can see the (inaudible) in West Africa, where all families members are killed, they die, villages are wiped out, towns are - people run away from those towns. It's a horrifying and scary disease.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Ebola has already claimed well over 1,400 lives in West Africa. The latest country to fight the virus is Nigeria. It's killed five people in the chaotic city of Lagos. Some doctors and nurses are now refusing to go to work and relatives of victims are pleading with them to continue.

HELEN BOYO-EKWUEME, RELATIVE OF PATIENT: Let them have basic treatment. Let it not be as if we all stood there and we just abandoned them and then they will die, I'm sorry to say, one by one. Let people treat them; they are human beings.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: The worst-affected country is Liberia. Fear of Ebola is so great here that a clinic in Monrovia, where victims were being treated, was attacked by a mob. 17 patients fled the violence and returned to their homes, sparking fears of renewed outbreaks.

TOLBERT NYENSWAH, LIBERIAN MINISTRY OF HEALTH: When the community saw that we were carrying supplies, food and bedding for those people, some young people got agitated and then jumped in that area and scared away those patients.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Across the continent, in East Africa, the Kenyan capital Nairobi usually serves as a gateway for travel to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. But flights from affected countries were cancelled when the World Health Organisation said the Ebola outbreak had been vastly underestimated.

Passengers have been tested as they arrive. If they have a heightened temperature and have been in an Ebola-affected area, they are taken away for testing. 

The Director of Medical Services in Kenya denies claims his government did not react fast enough.

NICHOLAS MURAGURI: This particular outbreak was bigger than we thought. Then we thought where we need to do - take extraordinary measures. That is why we suspended into entry passengers from or en route from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, as one of many steps to reduce our risk in the country.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Even though the flights have been stopped, the testing continues. So deadly is the disease, health professionals are taking no risks. 

Samples from all of the suspected cases of Ebola in East Africa have been brought to this laboratory for testing. While none of them have returned a positive result, that doesn't necessarily mean that Ebola is not in Kenya. Because of the extended incubation period, sometimes as long as three weeks, someone could have the virus and not even realise it.

That's one of the reasons borders remain closed and flights are still cancelled. It's now a difficult task to travel to West Africa, but health professionals still have to get access to the affected areas.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, ELIZABETH R. GRIFFIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION: It's heartbreaking. For being involved in infectious diseases prevention and control for years, what I'm hearing on the news, what I'm reading and the conversations that I'm having with colleagues in West Africa, it's absolutely heartbreaking.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Gavin MacGregor-Skinner is an Australian expert in public health and emergency responses. He's now based in Washington, DC, but is preparing to leave for Nigeria. He says technology is making a big difference in how quickly authorities can react.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: So we're finding that if we use all the tools in the toolbox and the greatest tool we have even before we leave has been video conferencing on our cell phones, then that's going to help us help the people and beat the Ebola virus.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: He's heartened by the case of two American health workers who beat Ebola after being given an experimental drug.

KENT BRANTLY, US AID WORKER: Today is a miraculous day. I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: We know that we can - we can beat this Ebola virus very easily and we know we can do that through the training that I've received, the experiences I have, I know that myself and my team are able to go out there and help people and ensure that this doesn't stay around for much longer.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Martin Cuddihy reporting.