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             DRC Sends Ebola Expert to Help Liberia Combat Disease

   by Peter Clottey

   The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) sent its Ebola virus expert to
   Liberia to help combat the disease following an official request by
   Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government, according to DRC
   information minister Lambert Mende.

   Mende said President Joseph Kabila has made available Prof J.J.
   Muyembe, Director of the National Institute for Biomedical
   Research-INRB, and professor of Microbiology, Kinshasa University
   medical school, available to Liberia following an official request by
   the government in Monrovia.

   "We sent our big specialist of this disease Prof. Muyembe who went to
   Liberia to help our brothers of Liberia," said Mende.

   Mende also sought to tamp down speculation that the sickness in the
   remote northern Equateur province that left several people dead was
   Ebola.

   He said health minister Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi and his team have
   launched an inquiry into the yet to be determined disease.

   "Since this case occurred in West Africa, we have put in a system where
   whenever we hear a disease can be similar to the Ebola case, a team of
   the [health] ministry moves very quickly to take sample and start
   inquiring and sending it to Atlanta or anywhere to make sure [it's not
   Ebola]," said Mende.

   He said test results could determine the type of disease affecting
   northern Equateur province, which will help inform the government's
   medical plan to combat it.

   Mende says it is too soon to speculate whether the disease is indeed
   Ebola. He called for calm and urged the population to allow the medical
   team to complete its assessment of the situation in the province.

   "There is no result up to now to say [exactly] what is going on there.
   We are waiting, but there is no report that we have Ebola here in this
   country. No, not at all," said Mende. "No [need to] panic."

   He said the government implemented new measures to isolate and treat
   cases of the Ebola virus in the capital, Kinshasa.

   "We have deployed teams [to] all borders to investigate any person
   entering the country, medically and we have made here in Kinshasa town
   where many people come from abroad eight hospitals are ready to receive
   any case of such," said Mende. "We have equipped them, we have sent in
   personnel. We have good experience with this disease that was seen here
   years ago."

   Mende says the government has begun screening all international
   travelers who visit the country for signs of Ebola virus irrespective
   of the country they came from.

   "All international airports, all ports are now equipped with materials
   to screen every passenger that is disembarking here in Kinshasa from
   every country. Not only from West Africa," said Mende.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/drc-sends-ebola-expert-to-help-liberi
   a-combat-disease/2423990.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/drc-sends-ebola-expert-to-help-liberia-combat-disease/2423990.html