GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo: The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in Goma, the biggest city to have been affected by the disease since its outbreak in eastern DR Congo last August, the health ministry said on Sunday.
The patient is a pastor who had been preaching in church and would have touched the hands of worshippers “including the sick,” the ministry said in a statement.
His symptoms first appeared last Tuesday in Butembo, one of the main towns touched by Ebola where he had been preaching.
He left by bus on Friday to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, arriving early Sunday where “the results of the laboratory test confirmed that he was positive for Ebola,” the ministry said.
“Given that the patient was quickly identified, as well as all the passengers on the bus from Butembo, the risk of the disease spreading in the city of Goma is low,” the ministry said.
The other 18 passengers and the driver will begin getting vaccinations on Monday, it added.
Health workers in Goma were vaccinated as early as December when the outbreak first hit Butembo some 300km (185 miles) further north.
The two towns are separated by poor roads under the threat of armed groups.
The latest Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has so far killed 1,655 people and 694 have been cured, according to a health ministry bulletin on Saturday.
And 160,239 people have been vaccinated, it added.
The World Health Organization had initially voiced hope it would be able to contain the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, thanks in part to the new vaccine.
But efforts to tackle the crisis have been hampered both by militia attacks on treatment centers, in which some staff have been killed, and by the hostility of some local people to the medical teams.
Insecurity in the restive region, including a long-standing presence of various rebel groups in Ituri and North Kivu, has also made it difficult for health workers to access those who might have come into contact with Ebola.
The disease spreads among humans through close contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected person, or objects contaminated by such fluids.
The current outbreak is the tenth in DRC in 40 years, putting all of East Africa on alert.
It is already the second deadliest on record globally, after the epidemic that struck West Africa in 2014-2016 and killed more than 11,300 people.
Pastor confirmed with Ebola as disease spreads in DR Congo
Pastor confirmed with Ebola as disease spreads in DR Congo
- Ebola causes diarrhea, vomiting and hemorrhagic fever and can be spread through bodily fluids
UK ex-ambassador quits Labour over new reports of Epstein links
- Former prince Andrew, stripped of his royal titles last year over his ties to Epstein, was also named in the files released on Friday
LONDON: Former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson quit the Labour Party Sunday, seeking to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after newly released US documents revived scrutiny of his connection to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson, 72, who was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the United States last year over his ties to Epstein, allegedly received several payments from Epstein in the early 2000s, according to documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice and reported in British media Sunday.
“Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me,” Mandelson wrote in a letter to Labour general secretary Hollie Ridley.
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party,” he added, saying he felt “regretful and sorry about this.”
Bank records released by the US Justice Department suggest Epstein transferred a total of $75,000 (55,000 pounds) in three payments to bank accounts linked to Mandelson between 2003 and 2004.
Speaking earlier Sunday on the BBC, Mandelson said he had no memory of the transfers and did not know whether the documents were authentic.
Mandelson also appears in newly released, undated photographs, wearing a T?shirt and underwear beside a woman whose face has been redacted by US authorities.
He told the BBC he “cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were.”
Other documents suggest Epstein sent 10,000 pounds in 2009 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, Mandelson’s partner, at a time when Mandelson was serving as a government minister.
The former ambassador was removed from his post in September after being appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in late 2024.
Mandelson apologized in January for maintaining his friendship with Epstein, having initially refused to do so on the grounds that he was not complicit.
Former prince Andrew, stripped of his royal titles last year over his ties to Epstein, was also named in the files released on Friday.
A second woman alleged Sunday that Epstein sent her to Britain in 2010 for a sexual encounter with Andrew, her lawyer told the BBC.
