"The Fire Next Time"? Sadly, This May Be A New Ebola Flare Up -- In Bas-Uélé, DRC...

It will yet take several days, before more reliable DNA tests are returned, but this does look ominous -- in the remote northern edge of DRC.

There are already seven suspected cases -- and already five deaths. But the initial tests were on very low quality, contaminated samples, so the tests did not return a definitive result. I suspect we are entering the DRC's sixteenth Ebola flare-up:

. . .From STAT’s Helen Branswell: The Democratic Republic of the Congo may have another Ebola outbreak on its hands. The World Health Organization told STAT it has been informed of seven suspected cases in Bas-Uélé, in a remote and difficult-to-access province in north-central DRC, along the border with the Central African Republic.

Of the seven, five have died. If this is confirmed to be Ebola, it would be the country’s 16^th known outbreak and the 10^th in the past decade. . . .

As ever, once the cases are confirmed as ebola, ring vaccinations with the Merck conjugate will be critically important. But at the moment, we need to confirm that it is in fact the Zaire Ebola strain, with DNA analysis -- otherwise the vaccine will be of little additional use.

Now you know. Onward. . . into the sunshine by the lake, here -- with Blue Angels overhead later.

नमस्ते