Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded an Ebola death in a province that had not previously reported cases in the country’s ongoing outbreak, raising concerns that the virus may have spread through multiple contacts before the infection was detected.
The patient was a motorcycle taxi driver who travelled from Haut-Uele province, where Ebola cases have already been confirmed, to neighbouring Bas-Uele province, according to Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research.
Muyembe said the man died in Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, after developing haemorrhagic symptoms consistent with Ebola. Tests conducted after his death confirmed that he had contracted the virus.
Bas-Uele has not yet been formally added to the list of provinces affected by the outbreak because authorities have not confirmed local transmission there.
However, health officials are concerned about the number of potential exposures linked to the patient.
Muyembe said the man visited several health facilities before his death, potentially exposing healthcare workers and other patients. Fellow motorcycle taxi drivers also attempted to retrieve his body after he died, forcing police to intervene.
Those contacts have raised fears that additional infections could emerge in Bas-Uele in the coming days.
Haut-Uele is among five provinces already affected by the outbreak and had recorded 113 confirmed cases according to government figures released on Tuesday.
The outbreak, officially declared on May 15, is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak.
Government data released on Wednesday showed that 4,566 infections and 2,128 deaths have been recorded so far, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever documented.
Only the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, recorded a larger number of cases.
Health authorities are now expected to focus on tracing people who came into contact with the infected driver in Bas-Uele in an effort to determine whether local transmission has already begun.