Ebola outbreak strikes Democratic Republic of Congo
Uganda confirmed that the Ebola virus has killed a 12-year-old girl. Uganda has not had a confirmed case of Ebola since 2007. In this photo a team of doctors examines a man suspected to be infected with Ebola on December 20, 2007.
After at least 16 people died from the Ebola virus in Uganda last month, a busy town in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now suffering from its own Ebola outbreak, Reuters reported. The latest outbreak has occurred in Isiro, a down in DR Congo that shares a border with Uganda. However, this latest strain of the Ebola virus is different from the one that hit Uganda.
"There is no link between both epidemics at this moment," Anja de Weggheleire, of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), told BBC News.
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At least nine people in the DR Congo have died so far from the virus, Agence France-Presse reported today. Eleven people in Isiro are believed to be infected. Doctors from the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are trying to treat the infected.
The Ebola virus disease is fatal in about 50 to 90 percent of cases, the AFP reported. People infected often bleed from their body orifices. The disease is believed to have originated from monkeys in Africa, according to the CDC.