Medical teams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo hope once again to use an experimental vaccine to prevent the latest outbreak of Ebola from becoming an epidemic.
Preliminary testing suggests that the strain of Ebola that has emerged is known as “Zaire,” the same kind swirling in recent months in another province 1,550 miles away, in which the experimental vaccine had been successfully used. The strain is the most deadly type of Ebola, carrying a mortality rate of 50 percent. Medical workers are doing additional lab testing and hope to confirm by Tuesday that this is the strain the area is facing.
Around 20 deaths have occurred in the province, known as North Kivu, but not all have been confirmed to be linked to Ebola. Four people have tested positive for the virus.
Health officials will face difficulty reaching people in North Kivu, an area undergoing conflict that is on the border with Uganda and Rwanda. Roughly 1 million people in the area have been displaced.
“We are responding to an outbreak with one of the highest mortality rates of any diseases, but in the context of a war,” Dr. Peter Salama, World Health Organization deputy director general, said in a press conference. “We are at the top of the difficulty scale in terms of responding to this outbreak.”
The strategy they used during the other Congo outbreak will be difficult, Salama said. Doctors employed “ring vaccination,” which involves tracking down different contacts with people who fell ill and vaccinating them and their contacts. Another strategy involves vaccinating people in a particular area.
Medical teams used an experimental vaccine developed by Merck during the previous outbreak, in which 3,300 people were vaccinated. During that outbreak, which was declared over last week, 33 people died and another 21 became ill.
The virus is spread through direct contact with people who are infected, causing body aches, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. It also can be transmitted through sex and has been found in studies to remain in semen for more than two years.
The outbreak in North Kivu caught the attention of health officials when a woman died from Ebola. They believe her family became infected after burying her because seven people in her immediate family died shortly after.
Salama said no evidence has emerged to suggest that the previous outbreak was related to this one. People in this region may have gotten infected after being bitten by an infected fruit bat, which carries the virus and can fly long distances, or from eating infected monkey meat.
