DR Congo reports four more Ebola cases

Four more cases of Ebola have been detected in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo, doctors said Thursday, two days after DRC reported a fresh outbreak of the disease.

Of the four affected people, two are caregivers at the hospital in Bikoro where the Ebola outbreak has been concentrated, the hospital’s chief surgeon Serge Ngalebato told AFP.

The latest Ebola outbreak in the region northest of Kinshasa near the border with the Republic of Congo has so far killed 17 people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made $1 million (842,000 euros) available to stop the virus from spreading to other provinces and countries, a representative of the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency OCHA told reporters.

The Nigerian government on Wednesday said it was acting to prevent the spread of Ebola from the vast central African country.

The federal government had put in place an emergency programme to monitor all border activity to keep Nigerians safe, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said after a cabinet meeting.

Nigeria, which does not share a border with the DR Congo, is the only country in West Africa with a mobile laboratory for haemorrhagic fevers.

DR Congo authorities on Tuesday described the Ebola outbreak as a “public health emergency with international impact”.

It is the country’s ninth known outbreak of Ebola since 1976, when the deady viral disease was first identified in then Zaire by a Belgian-led team.