...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
has killed 19 people, according to the World Health Organization.
A total of 39 cases have been reported in the northwestern Equateur province, the WHO said Monday. The infected include three health care workers.
Congo's Ministry of Health and the WHO are tracing contacts of the victims and offering them an experimental Ebola vaccine.
The WHO says the vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, has been been tested in thousands of volunteers in Europe, Africa and the United States and was judged safe for humans.
The virus, which causes a hemorrhagic fever, is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or animal.
On Sunday, a WHO delegation including the agency's director, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gehbreyesus, visited the town of Bikoro, the center of the current outbreak.