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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – The second largest Ebola epidemic in its history has spread to a large city in eastern Congo, while health experts have been able 39, worried about whether the stock of an experimental vaccine will meet the needs of an endless epidemic. view.
Butembo, which has more than one million inhabitants, is now reporting fatal cases of haemorrhagic fever. This complicates efforts to combat the Ebola virus already compromised by rebel attacks elsewhere which have made it almost impossible to screen for the virus in some isolated villages.
"We are very concerned about the epidemiological situation in the Butembo area," said John Johnson, project coordinator with Doctors Without Borders in the city. New cases are growing rapidly in the eastern suburbs and remote and isolated districts, medical charity said.
The epidemic declared August 1 is now the second after the devastating West African epidemic that killed more than 11,300 people a few years ago. There are currently 471 cases of Ebola, including 423 confirmed, including 225 confirmed deaths, said Thursday the Congolese Ministry of Health.
Without the teams that have vaccinated more than 41,000 people so far, this epidemic has reportedly already registered more than 10,000 cases of Ebola, the health ministry said.
This is by far the largest deployment of the promising but still experimental vaccine against Ebola, which belongs to Merck. The company keeps a stock of 300,000 doses and their preparation takes months.
"We are extremely concerned about the size of the vaccine stock," said Dr Peter Salama, WHO's director of emergency, during an interview this week with the STAT press, claiming that 300,000 doses were not enough, because Ebola epidemics in urban areas are becoming widespread.
Health workers, contacts of Ebola victims and their contacts received the vaccine as part of a so-called "ring vaccination" approach, but in some cases it was offered to all residents of hard-to-reach communities. The prospect of mbad vaccination in a big city like Butembo has raised concerns. Salama called the approach "extremely impracticable".
A spokesman for the WHO said that shipments of doses arrive almost weekly to ensure an adequate supply for ring vaccination. "No interruption of vaccine supply has occurred so far," said Tarik Jasarevic in an email to The Associated Press. "Merck is actively working to ensure the availability of a sufficient number of doses to meet the potential demand."
This Ebola outbreak is unlike any other, with deadly attacks by rebel groups forcing confinement work to pause for several days at a time. Some reluctant residents have resisted the safe vaccination or burial of Ebola victims, while health workers are fighting misinformation in an area that has never encountered the virus. before.
A "marginal population" has regularly destroyed medical equipment and attacked workers, Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga told reporters Wednesday.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through the body fluids of infected people, including the dead.
The epidemic "remains serious and unpredictable," said the World Health Organization in an badessment released Wednesday. Nine health zones have reported new cases in the past week, and some have no links to known victims, which means that monitoring gaps remain in an area with a very dense population. mobile.
Thousands of people have been organized by the Red Cross and other companies to go from house to house dispelling rumors and verifying potential contacts of the victims.
Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, Regional Director for Africa of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, participated in an awareness campaign in the epicenter of the epidemic , Beni, this week.
The head of a family thanked him for his face-to-face contact, saying that he did not even have a radio and did not understand what was going on. "Ignorance is the enemy," said another resident.
Given the years of conflict in eastern Congo, it is vital that households know why health workers are there, Nafo-Traoré told AP.
Although she described the insecurity as "very worrying", she said that with new tools, including vaccines, "there are high hopes".
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