Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed that no cases of Ebola have been detected among passengers on a river boat that was placed in quarantine near the capital, Kinshasa. This was reported by infohub.kz.
The confirmation, announced on Saturday, eased concerns that the rare Bundibugyo virus might spread to the Congolese capital. More than 200 boat passengers were placed in quarantine on Thursday at the port of Maluku, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Kinshasa, after one traveler who had been aboard the boat died with symptoms matching the Ebola virus.
Specialist teams from the Ministry of Health were deployed to Maluku to examine all those on board. Those exhibiting suspicious symptoms had samples taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis. The ministry said the vessel was also decontaminated. The National Institute of Biomedical Research, responsible for testing, reported that all suspected cases tested negative for Bundibugyo. The institute urged the population of Kinshasa to remain calm.
Congo is currently battling the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 4,200 confirmed cases and over 1,900 deaths since it began in May. The river boat passenger had become sick and disembarked nearly three weeks ago in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 1,000 kilometers from Kinshasa along the Congo River. According to Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are no confirmed Ebola cases in the capital.
News of the passenger's death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak. This outbreak is the second-largest on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials like bedding and clothing. Health authorities say that between 60% and 70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate faster than efforts to track it.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak is still "spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate" and that the response, which has been expanding, "is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains."