Health authorities have confirmed that no cases of Ebola have been identified among passengers aboard a river boat currently under quarantine near Kinshasa. This precautionary measure was implemented to monitor the health status of the individuals on the vessel, ensuring public safety amid ongoing concerns about the virus.
What Happened
It urged the population of Kinshasa to remain calm. Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has been deemed the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases since it started in May reaching 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths. News of the passenger’s death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak, the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.
The National Institute of Biomedical Research, which is responsible for testing, said that all suspected cases tested negative for Bundibugyo. Health authorities say between 60% and 70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate faster than efforts to track it. The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”
