Congo: Ebola Epidemic Confirmed

More than 160 people have died since the end of August and almost 400 are infected with the deadly and highly infectious disease.

Lab tests have confirmed that an Ebola epidemic has broken out in Congo.

The U.S. Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta and a laboratory in Gabon have confirmed that it was a hemorrhagic fever, that is, Ebola, Congo’s Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television Monday night.

More than 160 people have died since the end of August and almost 400 have been infected, the chief health inspector, Jean-Constatin Kanow, said.

The most infected are in two areas, Mweka and Mueb and most deaths occurred at the beginning of the epidemic.

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood or fluids of the infected person or with contaminated items. The initial infection has not been identified, but researchers believe it probably started through contact with an infected animal.

The last large Ebola epidemic in Congo was in Kikwit in 1995. It killed 245 people. Kikwit is located some 300 kilometres from the locations of the current epidemic.