Ebola Cases Rise in Congo Border City Amid Fears of Outbreak Spreading
(KINSHASA, Congo) — The 1-year-old daughter and the wife of the man who died of Ebola in Congo’s city of Goma this week have tested positive for the disease, health officials confirmed Thursday, while Rwanda briefly closed its border with Congo over the virus outbreak that now enters its second year.
It is the first transmission of Ebola inside Goma, a city of more than 2 million people on the Rwandan border, a scenario that health experts have long feared. The painstaking work of finding, tracking and vaccinating people who had contact with the man — and the contacts of those contacts — has begun.
The man died on Wednesday after spending several days at home with his large family while showing symptoms. Congo’s presidency said the entire family was at “high risk” and in quarantine. The Ebola coordinator for North Kivu province, Dr. Aruna Abedi, confirmed the wife’s case to The Associated Press hours after that of the child.
“We’re seeing the first active transmission chain in Goma ..