Democratic Republic of the Congo reports new Ebola case, months after end of its last outbreak

A woman has contracted Ebola and died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), marking the first case since the Central African country ended its last outbreak last year, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The woman was found with symptoms of the virus in the town of Biena, near the city of Butembo, on February 1, and died in hospital on February 3. She was married to a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak.

“The provincial response team is already hard at work. It will be supported by the national response team which will visit Butembo shortly,” the ministry said in a statement.

Health workers at an Ebola treatment center at Beni, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in July 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which is helping response efforts, says it has tracked more than 70 contacts of the woman. The places she visited are also being disinfected.

It is not yet clear if this case marks the start of a new outbreak or if it’s a manageable flare-up from the last one. Samples from the woman have been sent to the capital Kinshasa to confirm the link to the previous outbreak.

“It is not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak,” the WHO said in a statement. It added that WHO epidemiologists are on the ground investigating, but that emergency response efforts had been hampered by ongoing insecurity in the region.

The emergence of more cases could complicate efforts to eradicate Covid-19, which has infected 23,600 people and killed 681 in the DRC. A coronavirus vaccination campaign is expected to start in the first half of this year.

However, an Ebola vaccine and a well-drilled health system means the country is better-placed than ever to deal with outbreaks, even in urban settings. Ebola has a much higher death rate than Covid-19, but unlike coronavirus it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers. And lessons learned from the fight with those multiple outbreaks have helped efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus, experts say.

A recurring problem

The DRC declared the end of its 10th Ebola outbreak last June, and of its 11th outbreak in a different region last November.

The Ebola virus disease can cause fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, among other symptoms. It’s transmitted through contact either with infected animals or with the bodily fluids of infected people.

The DRC’s equatorial forests have been a breeding ground for Ebola. The disease killed nearly 2,300 people between 2018 and 2020, in the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak on record.

The country has experienced 11 outbreaks since the virus was first discovered near the Ebola River in the DRC in 1976 — more than double any other country.

Furthermore, ongoing militia violence in the northeast, including attacks against health centers, have claimed the lives of residents and health workers. Nearly a million people were forced to flee their homes in 2019 alone, the UN agency said, making access to medical care and prevention even more difficult

British boy wakes from nearly year-long coma unaware of COVID pandemic

  

 A British teenager is slowly emerging from a coma nearly a year after being hit by a car, and he has no knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic even though he has caught the virus twice.

Joseph Flavill, 19, suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was hit by the car in the central English town of Burton-on-Trent on March 1 last year, about three weeks before a first national lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of the virus.

During that time his family has been largely unable to be near him and hold his hand due to coronavirus restrictions, mostly trying to communicate with him via video link.

“Recently Joseph has started to show small signs of recovery, which we are thrilled about… We know now he can hear us, he responds to small commands,” his aunt, Sally Flavill, told Reuters.

“When we say to him ‘Joseph, we can’t be with you, but you are safe, this is not going to be forever’, he understands, he hears you, he just can’t communicate,” she said, adding that he now signalled ‘yes’ with a blink and ‘no’ with two blinks.

Since Joseph’s accident, Britain has registered nearly four million COVID-19 cases, including more than 110,000 deaths, in a pandemic that has turned life upside down worldwide, shuttering schools, universities, shops and many other places.

“I don’t know how Joseph will ever understand our stories of this lockdown,” his aunt said, adding that he was still very ill and faced a “very, very long journey” back to some kind of normal life.

Joseph, who before the accident was a keen sportsman, is now receiving treatment at a care centre in Stoke-on-Trent, central England, and his family has started a fund-raising campaign www.josephsjourney.co.uk to help support his long-term recovery.

COVID-19: ANGOLA RECORDS 45 RECOVERIES, 24 NEW INFECTIONS

At least forty-five patient recovered and 24 new cases is the epidemiological balance reported in Angola in the last 24 hours

The health bulletin to which ANGOP had access indicates the recovery of 39 citizens in Lunda Sul, 5 in Moxico and 1 in Bié, whose ages range from 1 month to 72-year old.

According to the data, 15 new cases were diagnosed in Luanda, while the provinces of Zaire, Moxico, Bié and Huambo registered two cases each and 1 in Huila.

Of the new patients, whose ages range from 2 to 82-year old, being 18 men and 6 women.

The laboratories processed 537 samples on the basis of molecular biology (RT-PCR).

Angola has 20,086 positive cases, with 475 deaths, 18,540 recoveries and 1,071 active people. Of the active cases, seven are in critical condition, 11 severe, 81 moderate, 76 with mild symptoms and 896 asymptomatic.

At least 145 people are under institutional quarantine, 175 are hospitalized and 1,971 are under epidemiological surveillance.