Ebola Virus Statement
BBC News has this to say about the latest outbreak:
"The outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is concerning.
It has been spreading for weeks undetected in a part of the world where civil war makes getting on top of the virus difficult, and the species of Ebola involved is rare, so there are fewer tools to stop a virus that kills around a third of people infected.
This is a critical moment in an outbreak where there is uncertainty about how far it has spread, but there are already almost 250 suspected cases and 80 deaths.
Most Ebola outbreaks tend to be small, but specialists are haunted by the 2014-16 outbreak. Then, 28,600 people in West Africa were infected in the largest ever outbreak of the disease."
During the last African Ebola outbreak a LifeSaver C2 Community Water Purifier was sent to Sierra Leone to provide the patients in an Ebola Emergency Treatment Centre with safe drinking water to further aid health recovery - improving the water provided, and reducing the dependency on chlorinated water.
Working with Concern Worldwide and UK Aid, who installed the C2, it was filled each day, along with a header tank, during a 4-hour window of municipal water provision, to ensure plenty of safe drinking water was available for the next 24 hours.
The BBC continues:
"The declaration of a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) does not mean we are in the early stages of a COVID-style pandemic.
The risk Ebola poses to the whole world remains tiny. Even in the 2014-16 outbreak, there were only three cases in the UK, and all were healthcare workers who had volunteered to help."
Ebola is a severe and deadly disease, although it is thankfully rare. Ebola viruses naturally infect animals – mainly fruit bats – but people can become infected if they come into close contact. It is not spread through water, air, or food but via bodily fluids - blood, vomit, etc - so close family members, care workers, and medical staff are most at risk when helping infected people.
This outbreak is being caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola – it is one of three species known to cause outbreaks, but is relatively unfamiliar.