Africa CDC concerned that outbreak of Bundibugyo strain could spread rapidly due to intense population movement.At least 80 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) new Ebola disease outbreak, authorities said, as health workers race to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease.Nearly 250 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been recorded in eastern DRC, according to the health ministry, with one death also reported in neighbouring Uganda. This has raised concerns that the disease could spread to neighbouring countries.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” DRC’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said on Saturday.“This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50 percent.”The outbreak, the country’s seventeenth, was confirmed on Friday in the northeastern province of Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan. At the time, 65 suspected deaths had been confirmed; the toll was raised to 80 on Saturday.According to Kamba, the suspected patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in the provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola.The disease has so far been confirmed in three health zones in Ituri, including Bunia, and the areas of Rwampara and Mongwalu, where the outbreak is concentrated.Only 13 blood samples have been tested at the National Institute of Biomedical Research; eight tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining five could not be analysed due to …
