Ebola strikes Congo again... a deadly strain with no vaccine and a worrying rise in deaths

The Health Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Samuel-Roger Kamba, warned of the danger posed by the spreading Ebola strain, stressing that it has a very high fatality rate in the absence of a vaccine or specialized treatment to contain it.

Ebola is a dangerous virus that causes severe hemorrhagic fever. It is transmitted through contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person, or through contaminated tools, and not through the air like colds and influenza. Its main symptoms include high fever, extreme fatigue, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle pain, and in some cases it may develop into severe bleeding. Some of its strains still have no vaccine or specialized treatment to date.

Kamba explained during a press conference in Kinshasa that the “Bundibugyo” strain is considered one of the dangerous strains, with the death rate resulting from it reaching around 50 percent.

In a related development, the Congolese Ministry of Health had announced 80 deaths in the Ituri region in the east of the country as a result of a new outbreak of the virus, raising fears that the scope of infection may widen in the coming period.