Sunday, August 24, 2014

DRC Reporting Two `Positive’ Ebola Cases

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# 8996

 

On Thursday I blogged about an outbreak in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) of a `hemorrhagic’ illness that had reportedly infected more than 500 people, and by some accounts, had killed scores of people. 

 

At that time, the best information available was that it was  `something other than Ebola’ (see WHO: DRC Outbreak `Definitely Not Ebola’), with  `hemorrhagic gastroenteritis’ being offered as a likely diagnosis.

As sometimes happens, particularly when dealing with early reports from remote areas with less-that-optimal surveillance, initial reports don’t always end up being 100% correct.

 

Today  the DRC is reporting that at least two cases have tested positive for Ebola. There remains a certain amount of ambiguity here; confirmatory testing will be needed before we know for certain. And if these cases are indeed positive, they should also be able to determine what strain (there are 4 known strains in Africa).

 

This from BBC NEWS.

 

Ebola outbreak: DR Congo confirms two deaths

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say two people have died from Ebola in the country's north-west.

 

Right now, we have no way of knowing whether these cases, and the outbreak in West Africa are in any way related.  It is certainly possible that a separate outbreak has emerged in the DRC. 

 

 

As the following tweets from @WHO & WHO Spokesperson @HaertlG indicate, we should know more tomorrow.

 

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