WHO: Ebola outbreak began in February

TT-AP

 

Published 16.02

 

Health workers disinfect an ambulance at a hospital in Ituri province in July. Archive photo. Photo: Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne/AP/TT

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo-Kinshasa began in February, months before it was announced in May, the World Health Organization announced.

The WHO's regional director for Africa, Mohamed Yakub Janabi, said at a press conference on Monday that sequencing showed that the spread of the infection had been underway for several months when the outbreak was formally declared on May 15. Some early cases were incorrectly attributed to malaria and typhoid.

The outbreak is described as the fastest growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

- We are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us, said Janabi.

The number of confirmed cases in the outbreak has reached 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths, according to recent figures.