Ebola epidemic spread to another country: World Health Organization confirms new case

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared a post on the issue on the social media platform of US-based company X. Ghebreyesus announced that the third case of the Ebola epidemic in Kenya has been confirmed.

"The Kenyan Ministry of Health has confirmed that a third case of Ebola has been detected among people in contact with the first patient." Using his statements, Ghebreyesus noted that supportive clinical care was provided to the new patient, who was already in quarantine.

Ghebreyesus stated that this early diagnosis reveals the importance of contact tracing and surveillance measures, and emphasized that WHO continues to support Kenya.

EBOLA OUTBREAK

The Ebola virus, which causes a type of hemorrhagic fever, first appeared in 1976 with simultaneous outbreaks in the cities of Nzara, Sudan, and Yambuku, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since the epidemic in the DRC started in a village near the Ebola River, the disease was named after this river.

The Ebola virus spread in West Africa in December 2013. In the epidemic seen in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2017, 30 thousand people were infected with the virus and more than 11 thousand of the patients died. An epidemic was declared in the country on May 15, following 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths announced in Ituri province in the east of the DRC.

According to health officials, there is no approved treatment or vaccine for the "Bundibugyo" Ebola variant that broke out in May.