{"id":130096,"date":"2025-09-11T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130096\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:28:10","slug":"pandemic-fears-intensify-as-multiple-towns-are-locked-down-in-attempt-to-stop-ebola-spreading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130096\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic fears intensify as multiple towns are locked down in attempt to stop Ebola spreading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health officials have declared an Ebola<\/a> outbreak after recording 58 suspected cases and 20 deaths from the disease.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared the Ebola outbreak<\/a> in the towns of Bulape and Mweka in the Kasai Province.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And on Wednesday, the CDC<\/a>\u00a0posted a level 1 travel alert for Americans, advising them to take precautions if traveling to the DRC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Among the 20 deaths are four healthcare workers, the CDC reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency added that there are no cases reported outside of the DRC and the risk of infection in the US is low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.’<\/p>\n

\"Healthcare <\/p>\n

Healthcare workers carry a coffin with a baby, suspected of dying from Ebola, in the Democratic Republic of Congo during an outbreak in 2018<\/p>\n

\"Thermometers <\/p>\n

Thermometers are pictured at the entrance of an Ebola treatment center checkpoint during a 2019 outbreak in the DRC<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

He told Reuters: ‘Some are going into the bush to hide. It’s a crisis, and cases are multiplying.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ebola can cause serious disease and has a mortality rate as high as 90 percent without treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are currently two FDA-approved treatments for Ebola: Inmazeb and Ebanga.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She died five days later from organ failure and testing on September 4 confirmed Ebola.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The outbreak was declared over the Sudan Virus, a rare virus that causes a severe form of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with the typical Ebola symptoms, it also causes bleeding from the eyes, nose, gums and other body parts, organ failure and death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"New <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Images <\/p>\n

Images showed first responders wore face coverings and gloves as they moved the patients into ambulances<\/p>\n

There is no specific cure or treatment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa when more than 28,600 cases were reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials suspected they could have had Ebola infections because the patients had recently traveled from Uganda where an outbreak was ongoing at the time.<\/p>\n

It was later confirmed that they did not have Ebola, but it was not revealed what illness they were suffering from.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After tests confirmed the illness on September 30, 2014, he became the first US patient to have the disease. He died a week later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials have declared an Ebola outbreak after recording 58 suspected cases and 20 deaths from the disease.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-130096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}