New outbreak of Ebola kills 17 in northwest DRC

Seventeen people in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have died from Ebola, the health ministry said on Tuesday, describing the fresh outbreak as a "public health emergency with international impact."
"Twenty-one cases of fever with haemorrhagic indications and 17 deaths" have been recorded in Equateur province, it said, citing a notification to the ministry as of May 3.
It is the DRC's ninth known outbreak of Ebola since 1976, when the deady viral disease was first identified in then-Zaire by a Belgian-led team. In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said lab tests in the DRC confirmed the presence of Ebola virus in two out of five samples collected from patients.
"WHO is working closely with the government of the DRC to rapidly scale up its operations and mobilize health partners, using the model of a successful response to a similar... outbreak in 2017," it said in a statement.
It said it had released $1m from an emergency contingency fund, set up a coordination group and deployed more than 50 experts to work with the DRC government and health agencies.
"The action plan prepared by the health ministry has been approved," an official statement released after a cabinet meeting said.
Ebola is one of the world's most notorious diseases, being both highly infectious and extremely lethal.  It is caused by a virus that has a natural reservoir in the bat, which does not itself fall ill, but can pass the microbe on to humans who hunt it for "bushmeat". 
The virus is handed on by contact with bodily fluids - touching a sick or dead person is a well-known source of infection. Following an incubation period of between two and 21 days, Ebola develops into a high fever, weakness, intense muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat.  That is often followed by vomiting and diarrhoea, skin eruptions, kidney and liver failure, and internal and external bleeding.
There is no current vaccine to prevent Ebola or licenced treatment for it, although a range of experimental drugs are in development. Early care with rehydration may boost the chance of survival. Given the lack of a pharmaceutical weapon against Ebola, health experts have responded with time-honoured measures of control, prevention and containment. They use rigorous protocols to protect medical personnel with disposable full-body suits, masks, goggles and gloves and disinfecting sprays.