Ebola has killed at least one person in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the World Health Organisation confirmed Friday at least one person had tested positive for the deadly virus.
"Since 22 April, nine suspected cases including three deaths have been reported. Six cases are currently hospitalised," WHO said.
"It is in a very remote zone, very forested, so we are a little lucky. We always take this very seriously," Congo's health department spokesman Eric Kabambi was quoted by Reuters as saying.
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An Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2013-2016 infected 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000 of them. It was the only epidemic of Ebola — usually, outbreaks are smaller and affect at the most a few hundred people.
Vaccine developers rushed research on Ebola vaccines and there is an experimental vaccine that's been shown to be effective. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has an agreement with vaccine maker Merck to have it ready.
"Gavi's work with Merck means there are 300,000 doses of Ebola vaccine available if needed to stop this outbreak becoming a pandemic," Gavi CEO Dr. Seth Berkley said. "The vaccine has shown high efficacy in clinical trials and could play a vital role in protecting the most vulnerable."
The Democratic Republic of Congo has had several outbreaks but none in areas similar to the West Africa epidemic, which spread widely in part because of intense cross-border travel and trade. The last one was in 2014.
"It is a sad fact that the people of the DRC are all too familiar with this horrific disease," Berkley added in a statement. "The fact that this is a country that has experience dealing with Ebola should give us hope that we won't see a pandemic on the scale of the 2014 outbreak that hit West Africa. We stand ready to support the DRC Government in its fight against Ebola."
As reported by nbcnews
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