{"id":34280,"date":"2018-12-18T12:29:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T17:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/?post_type=news-item&p=34280"},"modified":"2018-12-18T12:29:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T17:29:45","slug":"miracle-six-day-old-baby-survives-ebola","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/news-item\/miracle-six-day-old-baby-survives-ebola\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Miracle’ six-day-old baby survives Ebola"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Baby Benedicte’s mother, who had Ebola, died during childbirth.\/\/Ministere de la Sante RDC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A baby girl who was diagnosed with Ebola when she was only six days old has survived, health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have confirmed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baby Benedicte’s mother was infected with Ebola and died during childbirth.<\/p>\n

Benedicte showed symptoms only days later and it has taken five weeks of round-the-clock treatment to keep her alive.<\/p>\n

Her dad and aunt took her home on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“Her father, Thomas, was very emotional\u2026 she is his first baby,” a health ministry spokeswoman told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Ebola is a deadly infection that causes severe fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and internal and external bleeding.<\/p>\n

About half of those infected die, but babies are even less likely to survive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Youngest patient<\/h2>\n

During this outbreak, there have been 27 cases of Ebola in children yet to reach their first birthday and 21 have died.<\/p>\n

Tales of survival, like Benedicte’s, are rare.<\/p>\n

She was born on 31 October 2018 and was cared for at the Ebola Treatment Center in Beni, the city hardest hit by the outbreak in DR Congo.<\/p>\n

She is the youngest patient for whom doctors and volunteers there have cared.<\/p>\n

The little girl has become known as the “miracle of Beni”.<\/p>\n

What is Ebola?<\/h2>\n