WHO has dispatched a research team to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after a new case of the disease was reported near the city of Butembo, in North Kivu province.
The Butembo branch of the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) confirmed Ebola in samples taken from a female patient who had sought treatment at a local health centre. WHO is now supporting local and national authorities to trace more than 70 contacts, while sites she visited are being disinfected.
Samples from the confirmed Ebola patient have been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research’s main laboratory in Kinshasa for genome sequencing to identify the strain of the Ebola and to determine its link to the previous outbreak.
Ebola vaccines are being sent to the area.
Source: United Nations
