Nine-year-old girl from Congo dies after contracting Ebola virus

Joe Gamp
·Contributor, Yahoo News UK
A health official checks the temperature of a school going pupil from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the Mpondwe border point, separating Uganda and the DRC, as he walks through the computerised Mpondwe Health Screening Facility on August 14, 2019. - Every day at dawn, Doneka Kabowo, a Congolese teenager, walks miles into the jungle, with the threat of armed militiamen who roam the area, to go to school across the border in Uganda. But for some time now, another obstacle has developed for the 15-year-old and hundreds of schoolchildren who daily travel from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda to study: health checks for prevent the transmission of the Ebola virus. (Photo by ISAAC KASAMANI / AFP) (Photo credit should read ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
A health official checks the temperature of a school going pupil from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the Mpondwe border point, separating Uganda and the DRC (GETTY)

A nine-year-old girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo who tested positive for Ebola in neighbouring Uganda has died.

Dr Eddy Kasenda, an Ebola representative in the Congolese border town of Kasindi, said the victim, who has not been named, will be repatriated to Congo.

A Ugandan official, stationed at the hospital where the girl had been in isolation, confirmed her death overnight on Thursday.

School going pupils from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are seen crossing the Mpondwe border point separating Uganda and the DRC on August 14, 2019. - Every day at dawn, Doneka Kabowo, a Congolese teenager, walks miles into the jungle, with the threat of armed militiamen who roam the area, to go to school across the border in Uganda. But for some time now, another obstacle has developed for the 15-year-old and hundreds of schoolchildren who daily travel from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda to study: health checks for prevent the transmission of the Ebola virus. (Photo by ISAAC KASAMANI / AFP) (Photo credit should read ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
School going pupils from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are seen crossing the Mpondwe border point separating Uganda and the DRC (GETTY)

The girl was identified at a border screening on Wednesday as a possible Ebola patient and isolated.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Uganda, Dr. Diana Atwine, posted a message on Twitter saying the girl and her mother would be sent back to the DRC.

She wrote: "Our team at Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit in Kasese is managing an imported Ebola case. The girl is currently isolated and being prepared for repatriation back to DRC for treatment upon request of the DRC gov't."

Ugandan authorities believe the child did not have contact with any other Ugandan national.

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However, cross-border contamination between DR Congo and Uganda has been rare.

The Ebola virus has killed around 2,000 people in eastern DR Congo since August 2018.

More than 11,000 people died as the disease took hold across the African nations between 2013 – when the outbreak was thought to have started in Guinea – and 2016, with a handful of cases treated in the UK.

BUTEMBO, CONGO - JULY 27: A healthcare member inoculates a man for Ebola suspicion to take precautions against the disease in Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 27, 2019. (Photo by JC Wenga/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A healthcare member inoculates a man for Ebola suspicion to take precautions against the disease (GETTY)

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a fresh Ebola epidemic in the DR Congo in May of this year.

It is Congo's 10th Ebola outbreak, according to America's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was declared deadlier.