Ebola kills 31 in Congo: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that an outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 31 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN’s health agency, however, said on Tuesday that the outbreak in Congo is a “distinct and independent event” and has no link with another Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The WHO had previously given a death toll of 13 for Congo.

The separate outbreak in West Africa has left 1,552 people dead and infected 3,062 others since it was first reported in the forests of southeastern Guinea in March.

The WHO has said it could take six to nine months and at least $490 million (373 million euros) to bring the outbreak under control at current infection rates.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that restrictions on movement in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which are badly hit by the virus, have caused panic buying, food shortages and severe price hikes.

“Access to food has become a pressing concern for many people in the three affected countries and their neighbors,” said Bukar Tijani, the FAO regional representative for Africa.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are heavily dependent on imports for cereals and other commodities.

The closure of border crossings where the three countries meet, as well as reduced trade at seaports, is choking supply and increasing the prices, the FAO said.

“Even prior to the Ebola outbreak, households in some of the affected areas were spending up to 80 percent of their incomes on food,” said Vincent Martin, the head of FAO’s Resilience Hub in Senegal’s capital Dakar. “Now these latest price spikes are effectively putting food completely out of their reach.”

Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

MR/AS/MHB