1976 Zaire Ebola virus outbreak

In August 1976, an outbreak of Ebola virus disease occurred in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The first recorded case was from Yambuku, a small village in Mongala District,[1] 1,098 kilometres (682 mi) northeast of the capital city of Kinshasa.

1976 Zaire Ebola virus outbreak
Zaire (orthographic projection)
DateAugust 1976
Casualties
  • Cases / Deaths: (as at end of outbreak)
  • Zaire: 318 / 280

The virus responsible for the initial outbreak, named after the relatively nearby Ebola River, was first thought to be Marburg virus but was later identified as a new type of virus related to the genus Marburgvirus.[2]

A total of 318 cases and 280 deaths (an 88% fatality rate) resulted from this outbreak, which, along with an outbreak in Sudan that had begun a few weeks previously, were the first outbreaks of Ebola ever recorded.[3]

Epidemiology
Residents being examined by CDC EIS officers during the Ebola outbreak of 1976
Articles related to the
West African
Ebola virus epidemic
Overview
Nations with widespread cases
Other affected nations
Other outbreaks

Mabalo Lokela, the headmaster of a local school in Yambuku, was the first case of the 1976 outbreak in Zaire.[4] Lokela had toured with a Yambuku mission in August 1976 near the Central African Republic border and along the Ebola River.[5]

Lokela was initially diagnosed with malaria at the Yambuku Mission Hospital and given quinine. However, Lokela returned to the mission hospital on 1 September with a high fever.[5] Rest was recommended, and he returned home to his village of Yalikonde, about one kilometer from the mission complex. By 5 September, Lokela was in a critical condition with profuse bleeding from all orifices, vomiting, acute diarrhea, chest pains, headache, fever and in an agitated and confused state.[5] Lokela died shortly afterwards on 8 September.[6] On 28 August, a second man presented symptoms, claiming he was from the nearby village of Yandongi.[5] He left the hospital on 30 August, as no clear cause could be identified from his symptoms, and was not seen again. On the same day, Yombe Ngongo, a patient at the hospital receiving treatment for anemia, checked out of the hospital and returned to her village. She soon fell seriously ill, and was tended to by her younger sister Euza. Yombe Ngongo died on 7 September, and her sister Euza followed on 9 September.[5]

Soon after Lokela's visit, a number of other cases were presented at the Yambuku Mission Hospital. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that "almost all subsequent infections had either received injections at the hospital or had had close contact with another case."[6] Shortly after family members prepared his body for burial, in accordance with local customs, 21 of Lokela's friends and relatives fell seriously ill and 18 later died.[5] The mission hospital's reuse of unsterilized needles also contributed to the spread of infection.[7]

Yambuku Mission Hospital was a remote Catholic hospital and had no doctors and no laboratory facilities to aid in diagnosis.[5] Treatment was conducted by four Belgian nuns, a priest, one female nurse from Zaire, and seven male Zaireians.[5] Urgent pleas for assistance were sent out on 12 September. On 15 September, the first doctor to arrive, Mgoi Mushola, prepared a report in which he noted that none of the many treatments provided met with success; this was the first formal description of Ebola virus disease.[5]

Peter Piot, a microbiologist and physician who investigated the ensuing epidemic, concluded that it was inadvertently caused by the Sisters of Yambuku Mission Hospital, who had given unnecessary vitamin injections to pregnant women in their prenatal clinic without sterilizing the needles and syringes.[8][9]

In all, 318 cases of Ebola were identified in Zaire, and 280 resulted in death. An additional 284 cases and 151 deaths occurred in nearby South Sudan in an unrelated outbreak. Yambuku Mission Hospital was closed after 11 of its 17 staff members died. Belgian nuns serving the community were also infected, and two of them died, along with Mayinga N'Seka, a Zairean nurse, after the group was transported to Kinshasa. With assistance from the WHO, the outbreak was eventually contained by quarantining local villagers in their communities, sterilizing medical equipment, and providing protective clothing to medical personnel. The small Congolese Air Force provided helicopters to allow the outbreak team to visit 550 villages in the area.[5]

History
Further information: List of Ebola outbreaks

The table below summarises the eleven outbreaks that have occurred in the DRC since 1976:

Timeline of Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) since 1976
V・T
Date		CountryMajor locationOutbreak informationSource
StrainCasesDeathsCFR
Aug 1976ZaireYambukuEBOV31828088%[10]
Jun 1977ZaireTandalaEBOV11100%[11][12]
May–Jul 1995ZaireKikwitEBOV31525481%[13]
Aug–Nov 2007Democratic Republic of the CongoKasai-OccidentalEBOV26418771%[14]
Dec 2008–Feb 2009Democratic Republic of the CongoKasai-OccidentalEBOV321445%[15]
Jun–Nov 2012Democratic Republic of the CongoOrientaleBDBV773647%[11]
Aug–Nov 2014Democratic Republic of the CongoTshuapaEBOV664974%[16]
May–Jul 2017Democratic Republic of the CongoLikatiEBOV8450%[17]
Apr–Jul 2018Democratic Republic of the CongoÉquateur ProvinceEBOV543361%[18]
Aug 2018–June 2020Democratic Republic of the CongoKivuEBOV3,4702,28066%[19]
June 2020–presentDemocratic Republic of the CongoÉquateur ProvinceEBOV7432ongoing[20]

See also
  • West African Ebola virus epidemic
  • Ebola virus

References
  1. Hewlett, Barry; Hewlett, Bonnie (2007). Ebola, Culture and Politics: The Anthropology of an Emerging Disease. Cengage Learning. p. 103. ISBN 978-1111797317. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
  2. "Ebola virus disease". Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  3. King JW (2008-04-02). "Ebola Virus". eMedicine. WebMD. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  4. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4c1711c2-d004-11e3-a2b7-00144feabdc0.html "Ebola Ground Zero My Journey Back" Financial Times 3 May 2014
  5. Garrett, Laurie (1994). The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World of out Balance. London: Virago Press. pp. 100–105. ISBN 978-1-86049-211-2.
  6. "Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976" (PDF). Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 56 (6): 271. 1978. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  7. Preston, Richard (1994). The Hot Zone (PDF). Random House. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2014-08-04.
  8. Peter Piot (11 August 2014). "Part one: A virologist's tale of Africa's first encounter with Ebola". ScienceInsider.Free access
  9. Peter Piot (13 August 2014). "Part two: A virologist's tale of Africa's first encounter with Ebola". ScienceInsider.Free access
  10. Report of an International Commission (1978). "Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 56 (2): 271–293. ISSN 0042-9686. PMC 2395567. PMID 307456.
  11. "Years of Ebola Virus Disease Outbreaks". www.cdc.gov. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  12. Heymann, D. L.; et al. (1980). "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Tandala, Zaire, 1977–1978". Journal of Infectious Diseases. 142 (3): 372–76. doi:10.1093/infdis/142.3.372. PMID 7441008.
  13. Khan, A. S.; Tshioko, F. K.; Heymann, D. L.; Le Guenno, B.; Nabeth, P.; Kerstiëns, B.; Fleerackers, Y.; Kilmarx, P. H.; Rodier, G. R.; Nkuku, O.; Rollin, P. E.; Sanchez, A.; Zaki, S. R.; Swanepoel, R.; Tomori, O.; Nichol, S. T.; Peters, C. J.; Muyembe-Tamfum, J. J.; Ksiazek, T. G. (1999). "The reemergence of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995. Commission de Lutte contre les Epidémies à Kikwit". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 179 Suppl 1: S76–86. doi:10.1086/514306. ISSN 0022-1899. PMID 9988168.
  14. "Outbreak news. Ebola virus haemorrhagic fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo--update". Releve Epidemiologique Hebdomadaire. 82 (40): 345–346. 5 October 2007. ISSN 0049-8114. PMID 17918654.
  15. "WHO | End of Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo". www.who.int. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  16. "Congo declares its Ebola outbreak over". Reuters. November 15, 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  17. "Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola virus" (PDF). World Health Organization. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  18. "Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo: Disease outbreak news, 25 July 2018". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  19. "DR Congo's deadliest Ebola outbreak declared over". BBC News. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  20. "Ebola: 74 cases reported in DRC's 11th outbreak". Outbreak News Today. 6 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.

Further reading
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