On Sunday, August 24, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported two cases of Ebola. Today, the World Health Organization released a statement saying that it believes this newest outbreak is unrelated to the ongoing outbreak in West Africa.
There’s a new, separate Ebola outbreak — this time in central Africa
According to the WHO, the Democratic Republic of the Congo outbreak likely started when a woman ate meat from a wild animal that her husband had recently hunted. She developed Ebola-like symptoms and then died on August 11.
Doctors were initially unaware that she had Ebola, which helped the illness spread to a suspected 23 additional people, including health-care workers and relatives. Already, 13 have died.
The WHO reports that these people hadn’t traveled to West Africa recently or had contact with anyone who had.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) knows Ebola well, so it’s unlikely that these cases will spiral out of control like they have in West Africa. The nation has had — and controlled — six previous Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2012. So far, there’s nothing unusual going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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By Julia Belluz and Alex Ward
