More than 500 people have died from the latest outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo, but a vaccination programme has prevented thousands more deaths, the country’s health minister told AFP. “In total, there have been 502 deaths and 271 people cured,” said a health ministry bulletin published late on Friday, reporting on the outbreak in the east of the country. But Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said that, for the first time, a vaccination programme had protected 76,425 people and prevented “thousands” of deaths. “I believe we have prevented the spread of the epidemic in the big cities” in the region, he said. The outbreak started last August in the North Kivu region, which borders Uganda and Rwanda.

Source: Punch February 09, 2019 18:45 UTC