1. An #Ebola thread:
@WHO has put out an update on the new cases in DRC, in the part of the country where the 2018-2020 North Kivu & Ituri outbreak took place. Update is here: https://www.who.int/csr/don/10-february-2021-ebola-drc/en/

2. To date there have been 2 cases. A woman whose husband survived #Ebola in 2019 & another woman, a contact of the first. Both have died.
It seems likely from this @WHO update that there will be more cases flowing from these infections. Hope I'm wrong.

3. The first woman sought medical care on Jan. 25 & over the next week was cared for at 3 different medical facilities in 2 health zones. She was only tested for #Ebola on Feb. 3, which means health workers probably didn't take Ebola precautions. Her burial was not a safe burial.

4. The @WHO statement does not contain a couple of critical pieces of information. Does the genetic sequence of the virus retrieved from the woman look like the viruses from the 2018-2020 outbreak? If not, this is a new outbreak. That's unlikely. Answer to this is pending.

5. The @WHO statement also doesn't indicate if the first woman had been vaccinated in 2019 when her husband was infected. He was vaccinated, but too late to prevent his infection.

6. These infections are occurring in a part of North Kivu that people who followed the 2018-2020 #Ebola outbreak will remember with a sinking heart. Butembo-Katwa, an area where there was a huge amount of hostility & violence aimed at #Ebola control workers.

7. So what's being done? Consideration is being given to re-opening an #Ebola treatment center at Katwa (where at least 1 was razed by arson a couple of yrs ago). Vaccine is being sent. DRC has enough monoclonal antibody treatments in country for 400 patients.
Hope for the best.