By Canadian Press

Congo officials say 2nd Ebola case confirmed in city of Goma

Jul 30, 2019 | 2:33 PM

KINSHASA, Congo — Officials in Congo on Tuesday said a second Ebola case had been confirmed in Goma, the city of more than 2 million people whose first confirmed case in this yearlong outbreak was reported earlier this month.

There appeared to be no link between his case and the previous one in Goma, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a local Ebola response co-ordinator, told reporters. He arrived on July 13 from a mining area in northeastern Congo’s Ituri province and started showing symptoms on July 22. He is now isolated at an Ebola treatment centre.

Goma is on Congo’s heavily travelled border with Rwanda and has an international airport. For months health officials had feared that an Ebola case would be confirmed there. Days after the first Goma case was announced, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak a rare global emergency.

This has become the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 1,700 people killed despite the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine. Containing the outbreak faces unprecedented challenges amid attacks by rebel groups and resistance by wary community residents in a region of Congo that had never experienced an Ebola outbreak before.

Muyembe and other officials on Tuesday sought to reassure both Goma residents and neighbouring countries that measures were being taken to strengthen surveillance for Ebola at border posts and elsewhere. Neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan began vaccinating health workers weeks or months ago.

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The declaration of a global health emergency — the fifth in history — brought a surge of millions of dollars in new pledges by international donors but some health workers say a new approach is needed to combat misunderstandings in the community. Far too many people in this outbreak are still dying at home, they say.

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Associated Press writer Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro contributed.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Saleh Mwanamilongo, The Associated Press