DRC Health Ministry confirms Ebola in North Ubangi, the eighth province; one patient dead

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has confirmed Ebola in North Ubangi (Nord-Ubangi) province in the north of the country, the eighth province affected. A Health Ministry report released on 18 October lists two men in their 20s in the Wapinda health zone, one of whom has died, Xinhua reported. The report lists no source of infection for either man.

Wapinda borders Bas-Uele province, the Associated Press (AP) reported on 18 October. North Ubangi borders the Central African Republic, which has no confirmed cases.

Reuters reported on 15 October, citing two unnamed health officials, that two cases had been confirmed in North Ubangi but that Congolese authorities had not announced them. A health official in the province told Reuters there had been a series of suspect deaths in a mining area of Wapinda health zone.

As of 16 October, the DRC had recorded 9,415 confirmed cases, including 4,536 deaths, since the outbreak began in May, a case fatality rate of 48.2 per cent. Sixty-six health zones across eight provinces are affected. Ituri province remains the epicentre, with more than 73 per cent of confirmed cases, followed by North Kivu. The other affected provinces are South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele and South Ubangi.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said, as quoted by Xinhua on 13 October, that final preparations were under way for a Phase 2/3 trial of vaccine candidates against the virus. The trial is expected to start within weeks, subject to ethical and regulatory approval. As of 11 October, 399 frontline workers had been vaccinated in Haut-Uele province with Ervebo, which is approved for the Zaire strain of Ebola. Its effectiveness against Bundibugyo remains unproven.

North Kivu province will bar people entering from Ituri for one week from 19 October, and will limit motorcycles to two people and cars to four.

Kenya recorded an eighth case on 18 October, Al Jazeera reported on 19 October. Patrick Amoth, the Ministry of Health's Director-General for Health, told Citizen TV that of 38 people tested on 18 October, one was positive. The patient is a 49-year-old man who is not a health worker. Amoth said the man worked as a patient attendant and was likely exposed to Kenya's first case, a man who died at a Nairobi hospital on 5 October.