Ebola virus behind massive outbreak in DRC could be mutating, officials say
Cases have passed 4,000 and health watchdog plans to go door to door to find patients in major response escalation The virus causing a massive outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be mutating, health officials fear, as confirmed cases pass 4,000. Africa’s public health watchdog said the time for incremental action was over as they announced plans to scale up every…
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has passed 4,000 confirmed cases and 1,801 deaths, as of 4 August, according to the DRC's national public health institute. Health officials fear the virus causing the outbreak could be mutating, prompting the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to scale up the response and go door-to-door in search of patients.
Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, stated that there are 8 times more cases and 6 times more deaths than were recorded 11 weeks into the 2014-18 West Africa Ebola outbreak. While some progress has been made in treating patients with antiviral remdesivir and testing the Ervebo vaccine, response teams plan to switch from contact tracing to active case search, involving community health workers in door-to-door searches.
Officials predict that the outbreak will require a public health measure beyond traditional healthcare measures to effectively control or stop the spread.
Written by urgent.news from The Guardian's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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