July 31 (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s fast-spreading Ebola outbreak started in January, or even earlier, in the eastern Ituri province, a report published in the journal Science showed.
• The report, based on interviews with 97 people, concluded that the outbreak had begun at least in January on the outskirts of the mining town of Mongbwalu.
• Experts have previously told Reuters that infections started circulating weeks or even months before the outbreak, Congo’s 17th, was declared by Africa’s top public health agency.
• The report said a group of researchers had identified more than 500 suspected cases between mid-January and May 15, when the outbreak was announced.
• “One transmission chain started with a 50-year-old woman identified only as A who died on 25 January after vomiting blood. Her mother died 6 days later; her husband fell ill but recovered,” according to the report.
• Scientists interviewed nurses and doctors, community leaders, survivors, grieving family members, coffin-makers and cemetery caretakers, the report said.
• They also reviewed photos, WhatsApp messages, doctors’ notes, and even biographies read at funerals that mentioned the deceased’s symptoms.
• The outbreak is now the world’s second-largest on record, as the number of cases across Congo reached 3,532. Only West Africa’s 2014-16 outbreak was bigger, with 28,616 cases recorded across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
• It is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.
(Reporting by Fiston Mahamba and Yassin Kombi; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Ayen Deng Bior and Nick Zieminski)
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