GENEVA, Oct 1 (Reuters) – A staff member at humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has tested positive for the Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease while working on the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MSF said on Thursday.
“This person is being safely evacuated under a strict medical protocol in close coordination with the relevant health authorities in the DRC and the Netherlands, where the patient will be received by a designated hospital,” MSF said in a statement.
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Congo has risen above 8,000 for the first time in the Central African country’s ongoing outbreak, government data showed on Monday.
The latest situation report from the public health institute put the number of cases at 8,067 and deaths at 3,901.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, became the largest and deadliest in Congo’s history after surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic.
It is second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected over 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
MSF, which is responding to the outbreak across Ituri, North Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uélé provinces, said it recognised that despite providing staff with the highest possible levels of protection, the risk of exposure can never be completely eliminated.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, editing by Matthias Williams and Thomas Seythal)
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