WHO: 75 health workers infected with Ebola in DR Congo, 17 dead

Seventy-five health workers involved in the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been infected with the virus, and 17 of them have died. Dr. Marie-Roseline Belizaire, acting Executive Director of WHO’s Emergency Response in the African Region, stated during a press conference in Geneva on Friday that health workers are often the first to be infected at the start of an outbreak. The fatality rate among the infected health workers stands at 20.46 percent. Despite tightened public health measures, the outbreak continues to spread rapidly in Congo. According to the Congolese Ministry of Health, there have been a total of 896 confirmed Ebola cases and 232 deaths, while 78 patients have recovered. In May, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, assessing the risk of spread in the two regions as high.