After supplies ran out, the Ebola crisis in Congo worsened.
Three laboratories have run out of supplies needed for Ebola virus testing.
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it will provide an additional $20 million to help combat the Ebola outbreak in Africa, bringing its total direct support to more than $220 million.
The ministry said in a statement that the funds would support preparedness efforts in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan, including national emergency operations centers, as well as surveillance, testing, border screening and infection prevention and control.
She added that this would also help countries distribute essential goods and manage Ebola patients.
Two girls died and six were diagnosed with the virus.
After her mother died in late May, the child, Boswaza, was taken to a church-run orphanage in eastern Congo, where nuns quickly discovered she had a fever.
Within days, she died from what was later confirmed to be Ebola. Caregivers and doctors said that after her death, six other children were diagnosed as suspected Ebola cases at an orphanage housing 69 children in Bunia, a city in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They were taken to the hospital, where five of them later tested negative, and were escorted out of the isolation tent at the Evangelical Medical Center (CME) on Tuesday by paramedics in full protective suits, amid the nuns' smiles.
Sister Clarice said that another of the three children – an orphaned triplet nicknamed ”Cherry” who was not yet a year old – died on Wednesday after being confirmed to have Ebola, according to Dr. Freddy Kibwana, head of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, who spoke to Reuters.
Children are easy to transmit.
Children and infants can easily become carriers of the disease through bodily fluids such as vomit, feces, and saliva, which are highly infectious when they are infected with the Ebola virus.
Aid workers and doctors said that three of the deceased children's caregivers, including a nun, tested positive for Ebola.
The baby, who lived for less than two weeks, is one of the youngest victims of the epidemic that has so far infected nearly 600 people and killed at least 115 across Congo.
The World Health Organization said that in addition to fluids such as blood and saliva, the Ebola virus has been detected in amniotic fluid and the placenta, so it is likely that her mother transmitted the virus to her in the womb or during childbirth.
If the mother contracted the virus after giving birth, she may also have transmitted it to her child through breast milk, where the virus has also been detected.
Three laboratories have run out of supplies.
In a related context, the World Health Organization said that three laboratories in the Democratic Republic of Congo have run out of supplies needed to test for the Ebola virus, as the outbreak of the dangerous Bundibugyo strain of the virus continues to grow.
In its latest situation report, issued on Tuesday evening, June 7, the agency stated that laboratories in Bukavu and Luero in South Kivu province, and Goma in North Kivu province, had run out of stock.
She added that the laboratories are waiting for the arrival of reagents – the materials needed to conduct the tests – to resume work on the backlog of samples.
