Kinshasa — The African Union has begun sending qualified African health workers into the regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, that are affected by the latest Ebola outbreak to hit the continent.

These are seasoned veterans as some of them were also involved in the 8th epidemic from 2014 to 2016, and the ninth, which occurred earlier this year.

20 health workers left Kinshasa yesterday, and travelled to Beni in North Kivu province in the east of the DRC. A further 15 will follow in the next few days.

Apart from sending health workers, the African Union is making other contributions. In July, it donated six genexpert machines and 3000 cartridges and swabs for laboratory confirmatory testing. It also conducted capacity building programme that benefitted over 300 experts, on laboratory diagnosis of the Ebola Virus Disease, ports of entry and infection, prevention and control (IPC). Participants were drawn from the country's ministry of health and the National Institute of Biomedical Research.