Congo says healthy baby born to mom who recovered from Ebola

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A four-day-old baby is a surprise bright spot in Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak, as the country’s health ministry on Thursday called her the first child born to a mother who has recovered from the virus.

“Baby Sylvana” is healthy and does not have Ebola, the health ministry said. It tweeted a photo of the baby, her tiny mouth open in yawn or cry, in her smiling mother’s arms.

The baby is the first in this outbreak born to a mother who recovered, the health ministry said.

This is rare, though babies have been born to Ebola survivors in previous outbreaks. The mother was found to have the virus last month.

Baby Sylvana was born Sunday at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, a troubled city where rebel attacks have threatened health workers’ attempts to contain the outbreak.

Community resistance in a wary region facing its first Ebola outbreak also has hurt the outbreak response, with misunderstandings, vandalism and even attacks on health workers common.

This outbreak has become the second-deadliest in history, with 628 cases, 580 of them confirmed.

There have been 335 confirmed deaths.

More than 57,000 people have received an experimental Ebola vaccine as health workers rush to track contacts of confirmed Ebola victims in a densely populated, turbulent region near the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

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