DR Congo’s Congo River boat quarantine has put a Chinese-operated vessel at the center of a fast-moving public health response after five passengers died and officials began screening all 255 people on board for Ebola and cholera. The boat, Yingfeng 2, was intercepted near Bende Bende port, about 65 kilometers upstream from Kinshasa, as health teams moved to keep any possible infection from reaching the capital.
Health Minister Roger Kamba said the screening was being done as a precaution after a passenger who had fever and diarrhoea died in hospital after getting off at an earlier stop. He said four other passengers also died, including two adults, a three-year-old child and a newborn. Teams from the health ministry and the World Health Organization boarded the vessel and set up a mobile laboratory to carry out tests.
Kamba told reporters that no one had tested positive so far. He also said it was likely that no positive cases would appear after the 21-day incubation period had passed. Security services were ordered to keep the Yingfeng 2 offshore under quarantine in line with WHO standards, while public health teams remained ready to respond once the vessel was secured.
The boat had left Kisangani, DR Congo’s third largest city, about two weeks earlier, and travelled more than 1,700 kilometers downstream toward Kinshasa before it was stopped. Authorities said the passenger who died had disembarked in Mongala Province, and Kamba said there had been no Ebola cases there, contradicting earlier reports.
