Nineteen-year-old Armande* recalls her disastrous first visit to a health centre. “It was awful,” says the teen from Kongo Central, in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I was younger then and looking for information on HIV, and the nurse there made fun of me in front of everyone because of my age.”
Kalemie (Tanganyika Province) – The Democratic Republic of the Congo today launched a massive cholera vaccination campaign targeting 2 million people aged one year and above in three provinces in the east of the country to halt an ongoing outbreak.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has declared the meningitis outbreak that erupted in the north-eastern Tshopo Province over. A total of 2662 cases and 205 deaths were recorded.
The Ebola outbreak that erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province in October – the second in 2021 – was today declared over, the national health authorities announced after no new cases were reported at the end of a 42-day countdown, or two incubation periods after the last confirmed case was discharged.
When an Ebola outbreak was declared in their town on 8 October this year, the residents of Beni, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, needed reinforcements – not only against the risk of contracting the disease itself, but also against the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse at a particularly vulnerable moment.
Ebola vaccination began today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province where a case was confirmed on 8 October. People at high risk, including contacts of the confirmed case and first responders will receive the doses as the health authorities move to curb the spread of the virus.
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today announced that a new case of Ebola has been detected in the health zone of Butsili in North Kivu Province, where a previous outbreak was declared over 3 May 2021.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has declared an outbreak of meningitis in the north-eastern Tshopo Province where 261 suspected cases and 129 deaths—a high case fatality ratio of 50%—have been reported.
A medical doctor with experience in over 15 countries in Africa and the Americas, Dr Paluku was Chief Medical Officer for North Kivu province in his native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before joining the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2001.
