DR Congo Ebola Outbreak: Baby survives after being infected at six days old, becomes world's youngest Ebola survivor
Fri Dec 14, 2018 03:01:pm Health
4.5K By Obiaks Blog
A baby girl who was admitted to an Ebola treatment centre just six days after birth has now recovered from the virus, health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have announced.
The baby is now the world's youngest survivor of what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the world's second-deadliest Ebola outbreak.
Her mother who had Ebola died during childbirth.
Health authorities say the baby is a "young miracle".
She was discharged from a hospital in the conflict-ridden northern city of Beni on Wednesday, where she had received around-the-clock care for weeks.
"She went home in the arms of her father and her aunt," the ministry said.
Few cases of infections in babies have been reported but experts suspect transmission might happen via breast milk or close contact with infected parents, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Ebola is typically spread by infected bodily fluids.
Children now account for more than one-third of all cases, according to the UN children's agency Unicef.
A total of 426 cases of the virus have now been reported in and around Beni, according to WHO.
Almost 209 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak.
More than 11,000 people died and more than 28,000 were infected in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 - the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976.
BBC
The baby is now the world's youngest survivor of what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the world's second-deadliest Ebola outbreak.
Her mother who had Ebola died during childbirth.
Health authorities say the baby is a "young miracle".
She was discharged from a hospital in the conflict-ridden northern city of Beni on Wednesday, where she had received around-the-clock care for weeks.
"She went home in the arms of her father and her aunt," the ministry said.
Few cases of infections in babies have been reported but experts suspect transmission might happen via breast milk or close contact with infected parents, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Ebola is typically spread by infected bodily fluids.
Children now account for more than one-third of all cases, according to the UN children's agency Unicef.
A total of 426 cases of the virus have now been reported in and around Beni, according to WHO.
Almost 209 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak.
More than 11,000 people died and more than 28,000 were infected in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 - the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976.
BBC
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