Ebolavirus disease in Congo
The seventh reported outbreak of Ebolavirus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began on 26th July 2014. The authors were interested in whether this outbreak was linked to the ongoing outbreak in West Africa. They found that the outbreak began in Inkanamongo village near Boende town in Équateur province and was confined to that province. In total 69 suspected, probable or confirmed cases were reported between 26th July and 7th October 2014, with eight of these cases being in healthcare workers. 49 people died. The reported weekly case incidence peaked in the weeks of 17th and 24th August and has since fallen sharply. Genome sequencing demonstrated that the Zaire species of the Ebolavirus (EBOV) was responsible for the outbreak. This virus shared 99.2% homology with the most closely related variant from the 1995 outbreak in Kikwit in the DRC and 96.8% homology to the EBOV variants that are currently circulating in West Africa. Therefore the current EVD outbreak in the DRC shares clinical and epidemiologic characteristics with previous EVD outbreaks in equatorial Africa. However, the causal agent is a local EBOV variant that is different from the 2014 epidemic in West Africa.
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