Health officials have declared an Ebola outbreak after recording 58 suspected cases and 20 deaths from the disease.
Last week, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared the Ebola outbreak in the towns of Bulape and Mweka in the Kasai Province.
And on Wednesday, the CDC posted a level 1 travel alert for Americans, advising them to take precautions if traveling to the DRC.
This is the DRC’s first Ebola outbreak in three years and the first outbreak of the rare but fatal disease in the Kasai province since 2008.
Among the 20 deaths are four healthcare workers, the CDC reported.
The agency added that there are no cases reported outside of the DRC and the risk of infection in the US is low.
However, in Kasai, residents have been placed under confinement, the province’s governor said in a statement Monday. Local officials have erected multiple checkpoints along the border to prevent people from traveling in or out of the area.
Francois Mingambengele, administrator of the Mweka territory which includes Bulape, said: ‘The problem is that we’re afraid that the movement of people from Bulape could lead to contamination in other communities.’
Healthcare workers carry a coffin with a baby, suspected of dying from Ebola, in the Democratic Republic of Congo during an outbreak in 2018
Thermometers are pictured at the entrance of an Ebola treatment center checkpoint during a 2019 outbreak in the DRC
He told Reuters: ‘Some are going into the bush to hide. It’s a crisis, and cases are multiplying.’
Ebola is spread by contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as contact with contaminated objects or infected animals such as bats or primates.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
Ebola can cause serious disease and has a mortality rate as high as 90 percent without treatment.
There are currently two FDA-approved treatments for Ebola: Inmazeb and Ebanga.
There is also an FDA-approved vaccine for the disease but it is not available to the public and only given to people responding to outbreaks.
The first confirmed case in the DRC, according to the WHO, was a pregnant woman who went to Bulape General Reference Hospital on August 20 with a high fever, bloody stool, excessive bleeding and weakness.
She died five days later from organ failure and testing on September 4 confirmed Ebola.
Earlier this year, another outbreak was declared in Uganda, with 12 confirmed cases and two probable, as well as four deaths. The outbreak was declared over in April.
The outbreak was declared over the Sudan Virus, a rare virus that causes a severe form of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.
Along with the typical Ebola symptoms, it also causes bleeding from the eyes, nose, gums and other body parts, organ failure and death.
New York officials suspected two patients at a Manhattan urgent care may have had Ebola earlier this year because the patients had recently traveled from Uganda where there was an outbreak of the disease at the time
Images showed first responders wore face coverings and gloves as they moved the patients into ambulances
There is no specific cure or treatment.
The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa when more than 28,600 cases were reported.
In February of this year, two suspected Ebola cases were detected in the US. Patients were transported from a New York City urgent care to a hospital after they exhibited symptoms of the disease.
Officials suspected they could have had Ebola infections because the patients had recently traveled from Uganda where an outbreak was ongoing at the time.
It was later confirmed that they did not have Ebola, but it was not revealed what illness they were suffering from.
The first person to have a confirmed Ebola infection in the US was a man from Liberia in 2014. He had traveled to the US where he began experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.
After tests confirmed the illness on September 30, 2014, he became the first US patient to have the disease. He died a week later.
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