Call for aid in Ebola scare

CONGO. Congo’s health minister called for more help in combating an outbreak of the feared Ebola virus, which has killed at least five people in the first major outbreak here in 12 years.

Health Minister Makwenge Kaput told The Associated Press in an interview that a team of experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta had already arrived in southeastern Congo to back up local medical and health personnel on the ground. But
Congo needed more aid to contain the crisis.

“We have personnel, but we need to reinforce them ... we need to keep up the fight in the field,” Kaput said in Kinshasa after a visit to the affected area. “There is a need for doctors, epidemiologists, nurses ... so we can isolate all the suspect cases there are on the ground.”

Kaput’s call for help came one day after the World Health Organ-ization issued a similar alert requesting more doctors and other experts to travel to southeastern Congo to combat the outbreak.

On Tuesday, the government declared a quarantine of the area in southeastern Congo.

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