The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has spread to a seventh province as cases rise to 6,843, including 3,310 deaths, according to media reports today.

The newly affected province, Sud-Ubangi, is in the northwestern DRC, on the border with the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville. A male Ebola patient who became ill in Tshopo province died in Sud-Ubangi after traveling through Rwanda and Uganda and across several provinces, some of them which have not reported cases, Acting Sud-Ubangi Governor Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe told reporters yesterday.

The deceased man also traveled by boat on the Congo River in Mongala province, where he was in a health center for two days before being transferred to Sud-Ubangi. 

“The route taken both by the patient and by the boat exposes the population" of the provinces of North-Ubangi, Tshopo, and Mongala," Galekwa said. "Thirty-eight people have been identified as having been in contact with the patient and have been placed in quarantine.”

Infections more than double in North Kivu province

At a media briefing yesterday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned that the outbreak is rapidly spreading beyond the epicenter. While new cases and deaths have declined in recent weeks in hard-hit Ituri province, where the outbreak originated, they have risen sharply in neighboring North Kivu and Haut-Uele.

• Today, citing a steep decline in cases, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared an end to the massive lettuce-related outbreak of Cyclospora but announced that its investigation will continue. “While the outbreak is over, FDA continues the outbreak investigation of Cyclospora infections linked to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and recalled by Taylor Farms de Mexico,” the agency said. Starting in July, 12,883 people in 21 states were sickened by the parasite, 570 were hospitalized, and two died. The contaminated lettuce was recalled on July 17, and the last date of symptom onset was August 17.
• The Florida Department of Health is investigating whether a woman in Hillsborough County died of dengue. Hillsborough, home to Tampa, is in the west-central part of Florida. Officials cited privacy concerns in declining to provide details of the death, which media reports said occurred in an 80-year-old woman. Last week, Florida Health logged 38 more locally acquired cases of the mosquito-borne illness, for a total of 111 infections in six counties. Another 109 travel-related dengue cases have been reported this year.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Alert Network advisory yesterday about a nationwide increase in reported animal rabies cases and related exposures in people this summer. “CDC urges clinicians to conduct careful, evidence-based rabies risk assessments and follow current ACIP recommendations when post-exposure vaccination or treatment is indicated,” the alert said. The public should avoid contact with sick animals and wildlife and promptly seek medical care after bites or scratches, the CDC said.
• Today, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported 15 new polio cases in three countries. Afghanistan logged four cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1), the Democratic Republic of Congo documented five cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases, and Nigeria reported one cVDPV2 infection.