SPREADING

Congo Confirms First Ebola Case in Major City of Goma

The announcement that it has spread to Goma marks a serious escalation of Congo’s Ebola crisis.

The Congolese Health Ministry has confirmed Congo’s first Ebola case in the city of Goma, home to more than 2 million people. Goma is the regional capital in eastern Congo, and borders neighboring Rwanda. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing the second-largest and second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in world history, made worse by the fact that the disease is being battled in a war zone. More than 1,600 people in eastern Congo have died as the virus spreads to areas too dangerous for health teams to access. The confirmed case is reportedly a pastor who had been in the town of Butembo, where cases of Ebola had already been reported. The announcement that it has spread to Goma marks a serious escalation of Congo’s Ebola crisis.