THE Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 164 lives, according to health authorities. In mid-October, Congolese authorities said they were facing a “second wave” of the outbreak centred on Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border with Uganda. The epicenter had earlier been focused on Mangina, a town around 20 kilometers from Beni. In total, 257 cases had been recorded in the region, of which 222 were confirmed and 35 were probable, since the start of the outbreak at the beginning of August, the Congolese Health Ministry said in a bulletin dated Friday. On Oct. 17, the World Health Organization said the death toll stood at 139, although it said the outbreak did not yet merit being labelled a global health emergency. The second wave of the deadly virus has been attributed to community resistance to measures already taken to tackle the disease. On Thursday, around 1,000 students marched through the streets of Beni to launch a campaign to fight Ebola. (SD-Agencies) |