The patient, a 70-year-old woman, tested positive for Ebola Aug. 17 after being hospitalized Aug. 13 in Pinga. A rapid response team and helicopter team arrived at the village Aug. 19.
Pinga is hundreds of miles away from the outbreak’s epicenter in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, near the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern border with Uganda and Rwanda. The village is difficult to reach due to poor roads and thick forests, as well as frequent violence. The rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda has attacked Pinga multiple times.
The announcement of the case in Pinga comes days after the DRC reported new cases of Ebola in a third province, South Kivu.
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