Call for a Global Ebola Alert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The lancet reported the alarming situation of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the 4th of this month following the declaration of 785 deaths due to the disease in the country.

Illustration of the Ebola virus. Image credit: Festa / Shutterstock

• The DRC has reported 22 new cases to add to the epidemic.
• Ten of them are in the Katwa region and rest in other regions (Kyondo – 4, Butembo and Kalunguta – 2 each, Mabalako, Mangurujipa, Vuhovi and Mutwanga – 1 each)
• A total of 785 cases were reported in this outbreak. 731 are confirmed and 54 are probable
• 165 other suspected cases of Ebola
• Thirteen new deaths due to Ebola have been reported (7 in the community and 6 in Ebola treatment centers).
• Deaths in the community include those of Mangurujipa, Mutwanga, Mabalako, Kyondo, Katwa and Vuhovi. These are probably sources of spread of infection, according to health officials.

Authors Laurence Gostin, faculty director of the O. Neill Institute for Global and National Law of Health at Georgetown University, and her colleagues, in their letter titled "Ebola in the Democratic Republic Congo: Is it time to launch a global alert? Ebola in the DRC is the second largest since the West Africa epidemic of 2014. This makes it the second largest story of humanity, they write. The team described the obstacles to combating the outbreak, including in areas of "armed conflict, political instability and mbad displacement," which prevent aid and relief operations from functioning independently and effective.

The team wrote that "the partners from WHO, the DRC government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have demonstrated outstanding leadership but are in great demand." They warned that the epidemic was "Far from being controlled" and that it ran a significant risk. become a "long-term epidemic with regional, perhaps global, impacts".

The team is now calling for "high-level political, financial and technical support to fight the Ebola outbreak that began last May" in the DRC. New warnings about the spread of this disease near the city of Goma The epidemic has already reached Butemba, home to about a million people. The United Nations is actively sending help to protect the city of Goma and help them deal with the situation. Currently, 2,000 rescuers are being sent to Goma City to handle the influx of Ebola patients.

Health professionals believe that the problem of spread in this city concerns people who do not seek medical badistance when they contract the disease. Residents of the area have reportedly been attacked by locals, accusing them of watching and manipulating the Ebola outbreak. This aggravated the problem, said Médecins Sans Frontières. There are rumors that medical staff would put patients in body bags upon admission and even remove their organs for sale on the black market, etc.

Laurence Sailly, emergency coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in the Congolese city of Beni, said: "In this situation, people may have no choice but to seek medical help in institutions. health care that does not have triage or prevention measures, which increases the risk of contamination. We are talking about a population that has suffered many years of conflict. On top of that, they are now facing the most deadly Ebola outbreak the country has ever known. Disorders … add to their fate by limiting their chances of finding adequate medical care. Emmanuel Mbadart, coordinator of the Médecins sans Frontières project in Katwa, said: "More and more cases coming from the city of Butembo, which has about one million people, had to create a second center very quickly. treatment. Large windows allow our patients to see the faces of the doctors and nurses who treat them and facilitate family visits by restoring some of the human contact that is so difficult to maintain in Ebola treatment centers. "