The World Health Organisation said it will support the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo to roll out the ring vaccination around the Ebola cases in Goma to protect the contacts and the surrounding community as part of its response efforts.
A ring vaccination tracks the epidemic, recruiting individuals at high risk of infection due to their connection to a patient confirmed to have the virus, according to the WHO. A ring may be composed of an average of 150 people.
Contacts, and contacts of contacts of confirmed Ebola virus disease patients, health care and frontline workers in affected areas, and health care and frontline workers in areas at risk of spread of the outbreak are eligible for the vaccination.
The WHO’s announcement comes as a fourth case of Ebola was confirmed in the capital of North Kivu province, Goma, in eastern DR Congo.
Tucked in a hilly country at the foot of an active volcano, Goma, with a population of more than a million people, lies just 7 km (4.5 miles) from Rwanda’s main border town of Gisenyi.
A gold miner is said to have contaminated several people, including his wife and one of his 10 children, with the virus before succumbing to it.
Seven relatives of the deceased miner have been vaccinated and returned to a hotel in Goma where they are being monitored, according to the WHO. The relatives had travelled from Goma to Birava in South Kivu province causing panic.
Health workers are attempting to track people who may have come into contact with the miner.
Meanwhile, Rwanda had already reopened its border with the DR Congo hours after it was closed on Thursday following news of a third death from the virus in Goma.
More than 2,700 people have been infected with Ebola while more than 1,800 people in other parts of Democratic Republic of Congo have died since the outbreak a year ago, making it the second-worst on record. Between 2014 and 2016, more than 11,000 people were killed by an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
