DAKAR, June 30 (Reuters) – Congolese health authorities are tracing people potentially exposed to Ebola in two provinces not previously affected by the latest outbreak, amid fears the virus could spread further, a health ministry report and a senior health official said.
The outbreak, declared on May 15, has so far infected 1,307 people and killed 377 across the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, according to government data released on Monday.
In Tshopo province, health workers are tracing people who may have been exposed to the body of a pregnant woman who died of Ebola in Ituri’s Niania health zone, according to a health ministry report dated June 29 and reviewed by Reuters.
The woman fell ill on June 18 and died on June 27, the report said. Her body was transported by motorcycle about 300 km west to the city of Kisangani in neighbouring Tshopo province, where a sample taken at a morgue tested positive for Ebola.
The report said the body’s journey through several health zones before the diagnosis was made created a high risk of transmission. Authorities have launched contact-tracing efforts across the province.
Separately, a senior health official, who asked to remain anonymous as he is not allowed to brief the media, told Reuters that two people identified as contacts of Ebola cases in Niania and who had been placed in isolation for testing, had fled to Haut-Uele province.
Like Tshopo, Haut-Uele neighbours Ituri. It also shares borders with South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
One of the two tested positive for Ebola, the official said, while the second was awaiting a confirmatory test. Both have since been located and are being returned to Niania, he said, while health teams trace anyone they may have encountered in Haut-Uele.
(Reporting and writing by Clement Bonnerot; Editing by Jessica Donati and Daniel Wallis)
