Officials Confirm Ebola Outbreak in Congo - Second Ebola Outbreak This Year - 11 Dead

AP ^ | 11-14-03

[Neuromancer]

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo Nov. 14 — Health officials on Friday confirmed Ebola as the cause of 11 deaths in the northern forests, signaling the Republic of Congo's second outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever this year.

Blood specimens from corpses suspected to have been infected with the deadly virus have tested positive, national public health chief Damase Bozongo said. "We can now affirm that it was Ebola," he told reporters.

A World Health Organization spokesman, Boniface Bibousse, also verified the outbreak in the Cuvette West region, saying it was sending two epidemiologists to the area on Saturday.

First reports from the remote northern region emerged Oct. 31.

Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viral diseases, causes rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected.

In June, Republic of Congo health authorities announced the end of an Ebola epidemic that killed over 120 people in the same Cuvette West region. That epidemic believed to have been started by contact with infected gorilla flesh, which is eaten in parts of sub-Saharan Africa broke out in January.

The WHO says Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region of Congo, this country's larger, eastern neighbor.

[Squantos]

Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viral diseases, causes rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected,

Guess I'll quit whining about the paper cut I got this morning at work........

[ClancyJ]

Guess I'll quit eating gorilla meat.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I read "The Hot Zone" a few years back. Ebola is one nasty sonofabitch.

Prayers go for the people out there.

[Neuromancer]

Congo confirms Ebola outbreak

Congolese Health Minister Alain Moka has confirmed that a viral outbreak that has already claimed the lives of 11 people in the Central African nation was caused by the deadly Ebola virus.

"Samples taken from the victims and analysed in a specialised centre... proved positive," Mr Moka said.

"There is definitely an Ebola epidemic in the Mbomo district," he said of the affected north-western region.

Authorities say the outbreak has already left 11 dead out of 13 recent cases.

Mr Moka said movement throughout the area is being closely monitored.

In 2002, the same region was quarantined due to an Ebola outbreak that claimed the lives of more than 100 people.

There is currently no vaccine to fight the highly contagious and deadly fever.

[Neuromancer]

The tale opens with the description of a mysterious epidemic. "The 'Red Death' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour."

To escape death, Prince Prospero secludes himself and a thousand noblemen in a castellated abbey. The epidemic rages and kills the poor who were left outside to fend for themselves. Six months into their successful bid to avoid the contagion, the callous prince and his friends celebrate within the sealed confines of the abbey, when quite suddenly the disease invades their sanctuary and kills everyone.

[Squantos]

Well it is the cold and flu season so take care..........;o)

[Doctor Stochastic]

Ebola is only Number Two; rabies is still the deadliest (untreated.)

Of course we know the rabies vector.

[null and void]

There've been what? A dozen or so survivors of of rabies?

(Not counting those vaccinated before becoming symtomatic, of course)

[Doctor Stochastic]

Perhaps. I only know of one. It's still right up there.

[null and void]

Here's what I found:
Matthew Winkler '70
a report of a survivor '72
"a case" '73
"a man" '76
"9 year old boy" '94
"6 year old girl" '02

That's somewhere between 4 and 6 individuals, depending on whether there are multiple reports of on or more cases. I also read of a survivor earlier this year.

I'd be willing to bet the first three listed are all the Winkler kid.

[Doctor Stochastic]

That's better than one. More survive ebola. The problem for ebola is that the vector is unknown; thus it can be harder to avoid. There's no vaccine either.

[Neuromancer]

Researchers have speculated that birds may be the elusive reservoir of Ebola virus, having noted the similarities between Ebola and avian retroviruses.

Research shows that Ebola virus and avian sarcoma and leukosis virus have some functional similarities.

The glycoproteins of Ebola and avian retroviruses have similar biochemical and structural properties.

Avian viruses have jumped the species barrier before; Influenza A is a familiar example of a pathogen that causes little harm to its natural host, birds - but in jumping to another species, its adaptation to a foreign host, the flu virus has led to deadly outbreaks.


In Tanzania and Kenya, where Ebola outbreaks have not occurred, the bird populations are distinct from those populations in areas where outbreaks have occurred - farther west and into Congo.

However there is no field evidence of Ebola in birds.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Well, we worry about one of the Hanta virus variants in Northern New Mexico. It is much less of a problem now that we know that it's carried by the deer mouse.

The rule is: "Don't breathe dried deer mouse urine." (This is not as easy to do as it might seem at first glance. Think sweeping.)