The Democratic Republic of Congo said that confirmed Ebola deaths had reached 2,011.
KINSHASA: Ebola has spread to another province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fears of wider transmission after health authorities identified a man who died from the virus in an area not previously affected by the outbreak.
A health official told Reuters that concerns over further transmission emerged after the patient was present in and died in Bas-Uele province, where no Ebola cases had previously been reported.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, told Reuters that the case involved a taxi driver who had travelled to Bas-Uele.
Health authorities said the latest development has raised concerns about the geographic spread of the outbreak as efforts continue to contain the virus.
The Democratic Republic of Congo said that confirmed Ebola deaths had reached 2,011, while 4,381 confirmed cases had been reported across five provinces, according to the latest figures from the country’s public health institute.
The outbreak has been described by health officials as one of the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemics on record, with the number of cases and deaths continuing to rise.
More read, First human trial of Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine begins
Earlier, Moderna announced that it has begun its first human clinical trial of an experimental vaccine designed to protect against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. The strain has caused more than 1,650 deaths worldwide, and there is currently no approved vaccine to prevent it.
The company said Health Canada approved the early-stage trial, and the first volunteers have already received the vaccine, known as mRNA-1469. The vaccine is based on the same mRNA technology used in Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The trial will take place at three sites across Canada and is expected to enroll about 80 healthy adults. Researchers will evaluate whether the vaccine is safe and whether it produces a strong immune response.
