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GENEVA: The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread southward into an area at high risk for safety, said the World Health Organization (WHO) .
The epidemic, the most serious of the country, killed 439 of the 713 people who reportedly caught the disease. The fight against the Ebola virus depends on finding people who may have been in contact with the disease, getting sick and spreading them further.
But the outbreak in a region of Congo where fighting is frequent makes it difficult for health workers to move around, monitor potential patients and broadcast messages on how to avoid getting sick.
Since the beginning of the year, most cases have occurred in the Katwa Health Zone, where the WHO has stated that workers affected by the Ebola virus have been faced with "pockets of distrust" to the community "and that most of the patients were not on lists of people suspected of being affected.
"The epidemic has also spread southward to the Kayina Health Zone, an area at high risk for safety," said the WHO in a statement released on Thursday. January 24th. There were five cases in Kayina, located between the main area of infection and the main town of Goma, close to the Rwandan border.
The WHO said that after organizing an Ebola simulation exercise in Rwanda, it had sent a team to strengthen the country's preparedness and vaccinate health workers who would be the first to contact Ebola if it spread to the border.
However, WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said there had also been a decrease in the number of cases around the previous Beni hotspot.
"It is very premature to claim victory, it is true that we have had success in Beni because all the measures we have taken have had an impact, but unfortunately, we see cases in other areas" , she said.
"The country is not only confronted with Ebola, but also with other health threats, to name only malaria, cholera, polio vaccine origin, as well as a very long humanitarian crisis and many violence in several regions. "
More than 60,000 people have been vaccinated in Congo, as well as 2,500 in Uganda, one of the "very high" countries at risk of contracting the disease.
Chaib said that there were 4,000 people likely to be in contact with the Ebola virus under surveillance and 156 patients in the hospital.
(Report by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay, edited by Janet Lawrence)
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