African nations are at risk of Ebola spread as outbreak claims more lives

Uganda confirmed three new Ebola cases and the Red Cross said three volunteers died in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - amid warnings that the deadly virus could spread to several more African countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever an international emergency. The African Union’s health agency warned that more countries on the continent were at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, listed countries also at risk as Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. Kaseya said that “high mobility and insecurity” in the region were helping spread the disease. The new cases confirmed in Uganda bring to five the total confirmed in the east African country since it was detected there and in the DRC on May 15. One person has died. The Health Ministry named the new patients as a Ugandan driver, a Ugandan health worker and a woman from the DRC. All are alive. Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure The current epidemic centres on the conflict-wracked eastern DRC, where it was detected in Ituri province before spreading to South Kivu. There are 82 confirmed cases and seven confirmed deaths in the vast, unstable DRC, alongside almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, the WHO said. The Red Cross said that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. The three “were carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola”. A spokesman added: “At the time of the intervention, the community was not aware of the Ebola virus disease outbreak ... They are among the first known victims.” Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past 50 years. The WHO has raised the risk from Ebola in the DRC to its highest level - but maintains that the global risk remained “low”. The eastern DRC has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving a litany of armed groups. State services in rural areas of Ituri have been largely absent for decades. - AFP

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