New Ebola outbreak may come from infected animals, study

A health worker checks the temperature of a fan arriving at Malabo Stadium ahead of an African Cup of Nations soccer match, in Malabo January 20, 2015. /CFP

Genetic sequencing of the virus by Congo's biomedical research laboratory shows the new outbreak is likely to have started as a "spillover event," a transmission from an infected animal, according to the research published on virological.org, a molecular evolution and epidemiology forum.

The country's authorities on Monday have reported nine Ebola infections in the northwestern city of Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo, saying they appeared to be separate from another outbreak of the virus that has raged in the east since 2018.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), three probable cases of the disease have also been found in and around Mbandaka. Six out of the twelve people including the confirmed and suspected cases have died, it added.

In a situation report, the WHO said 300 people in Mbandaka and the surrounding Equateur province had been vaccinated - a tool health workers used to control the outbreak in the east, which has not seen any new infections since April 27.

Mbandaka suffered a small Ebola outbreak in 2018 that killed 33 people. Health officials say vaccinations and swift containment efforts including mobile hand-washing stations and a door-to-door education campaign kept it at bay.

The new cases in Mbandaka mark the country's 11th major Ebola outbreak since the virus was discovered near northern Congo's Ebola River in 1976. It is Congo's third outbreak in two years of the virus which causes vomiting, diarrhea, and external bleeding.

"This outbreak is a reminder that #COVID19 is not the only health threat people face," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted.

(With input from Reuters)