HEALTH - Rwandans living along the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border are safe from the deadly Ebola virus, State Minister in charge of HIV/Aids and other Infectious Diseases, Innocent Nyaruhirira has said.

"What I can say is that our people are safe. The screening exercise is continuous,” Nyaruhirira said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed nine further cases of the deadly Ebola virus in the DRC where at least 174 people (all in the West Kasai region) have died in the latest outbreak.

The Health ministry is currently vetting all people entering the country from DRC following the outbreak of Ebola, deadly haemorrhagic fever which kills 80 percent of its patients. Nyaruhirira said officials from the ministry are visiting the border points tomorrow to assess the situation.

Symptoms of the epidemic that were first identified in the region on April 27 are high temperature, bloody diarrhoea and visible haemorrhaging. There is no known cure for Ebola, and 90 percent of its patients die, according to scientists.

The virus is thought to be transmitted through the consumption of infected bush meat and can also be spread by contact with the blood secretions of infected people.

DR Congo’s last major Ebola outbreak killed more than 200 people in 1995 in Kikwit, about 400km (250 miles) west of the current outbreak.

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