Ebola Patient In DR Congo City Of Goma Has Died: Governor

Goma, DR Congo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jul, 2019 ) :The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the eastern DR Congo city of Goma has died, the governor of North Kivu province said on Tuesday.

The case -- the first in a major urban hub in the region's nearly year-old epidemic of the disease -- has sparked deep concern in neighbouring Rwanda and at the UN.

The UN's World Health Organization will convene its emergency response board on Wednesday to assess whether the outbreak should be declared a "public health emergency of international concern", a move that would step up the global response. An announcement is expected late Wednesday.

The haemorrhagic virus outbreak, the second deadliest on record, has largely been contained in remote parts of DR Congo.

But WHO chief chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said that confirmation of an Ebola case "could potentially be a game-changer" in the epidemic.

The Goma patient has been described as an evangelical preacher who had travelled from the city to Butembo, one of the towns hardest hit by the outbreak.

While there, he preached at seven churches and regularly touched worshippers, including the sick, before taking the bus back to Goma last Friday, the health ministry said.

On his return on Sunday, he went to a clinic with a fever, was diagnosed with Ebola and sent back to Butembo, which is better geared than Goma for treating the disease, it said.

"Unfortunately, I can confirm that the patient died," the governor of North Kivu, Carly Nzanzu, told reporters, adding that it happened while he was being transferred by road.