Angola closes its border with DR Congo to prevent the Ebola virus

06 January 2009 11:42

LUANDA - Angola has closed its north-eastern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prevent the spread into its territory of the Ebola crisis in its neighbor since the end of November, reported Tuesday the state agency ANGOP .

"The Angolan government has ordered the suspension of movements in its north-eastern border, to prevent individuals and diamond smugglers carrying the virus, says ANGOP quoting Health Minister Jose Van-Dúnem.

The minister has also strengthened information campaign on preventing the spread of the virus and the epidemiological surveillance of the area.

On 25 November, the Congolese government announced the emergence of new cases of Ebola in the province of Kasai Occidental (center), referring to the time nine dead and 21 patients identified.

The organization Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) was then reported at least 11 dead.

The Ebola virus may be due to the handling of dead monkeys in the Congolese forest, told ANGOP the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Angola, Diosdado Nsue-Micawg.

Highly contagious disease, fatal in 50 to 90% of cases, Ebola has struck the former Zaire on three occasions.

In 1976, the virus has killed nearly 500 people on both sides of the border between Sudan and north-eastern Zaire, where he resurfaced in 1995, with 245 deaths in the Bandundu province (west).

In 2007, 26 confirmed cases of Ebola had been registered in the province of Kasai Occidental, where several outbreaks associated (Ebola, typhoid fever, malaria, dysentery) had killed 187 people.

(© AFP / 06 January 2009 11:42)