# 8998
Yesterday’s announcement that the DRC Reported Two `Positive’ Ebola Cases was followed overnight by reports (as yet, uncorroborated) that one of these samples was identified as Ebola Sudan, and the other (a bit perplexingly) was described as a `hybrid’ between Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire.
This excerpt from Reuters’ UPDATE 1-Congo declares Ebola outbreak in northern Equateur province.
Numbi said that one of the two cases that tested positive was for the Sudanese strain of the disease, while the other was a mixture between the Sudanese and the Zaire strain -- the most lethal variety.
Given the unusual nature of this claim, I’ll withhold any comment until we can get a confirmation from a WHO Collaborating Centre. If true, this would appear to exclude the West African Ebola outbreak as the source, along with raising a number of new questions.
That said, I always take early reports from the field with a sizable grain of salt. We should know more later today or tomorrow.
In the meantime, Dr. Ian Mackay has produced a helpful map, and blog post, on this recent turn of events.
The battle of Ebola gains a second front...the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC; f. Zaire)
So there are two reasons for this post.
- It may be a little while before we get solid confirmed information form the DRC and I think maps are useful for those of us who are ignorant of where countries live!
- I'm looking for a quick post so I can move the previous post's grisly pictures down the page!
We don't know the details yet but early reports from a country that was the site of the first (known) outbreak of a virus (called Ebola virus [1] or EBOV) of species Zaire ebolavirus, suggest 2 confirmed cases.[2]
