Congo Confirms Ebola Outbreak

This was after two out of eight cases tested positive for the deadly virus.

Congo’s health minister Felix Kabange Numbi however says that the cases of Ebola reported in the Central African country were unrelated to the epidemic witnessed in recent weeks in West African countries.

The World Health Organization now says that it is waiting to confirm DRC’s findings.

WHO says it will do a test in its own laboratories to find out which of the five strains of the Ebola virus afflicted the Congolese and whether they match the strain circulating in West Africa.

The first Ebola outbreak occurred there in 1976, in the same area where the current Ebola cases were detected.

The deadly Ebola outbreak has so far killed over 1,000 people and has largely been confined to the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia,, Nigeria and Guinea.

By Wangui Ngechu

Source: Reuters