[ad_1]
Médecins Sans Frontières will end its involvement in the international response to an Ebola outbreak in the heart of Africa at the end of the month, a sign that public health officials believe that the epidemic has been largely contained.
also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), had been charged with operating treatment centers in four cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where patients were positive for the Ebola virus. The group treated 38 patients, 24 of whom survived.
MSF began to reduce its involvement in the Congolese epidemic at the end of last month, transferring the Ebola operation to the cities of Itipo and Bikoro to the Ministry of Health.
The group will complete the construction of an Ebola Room in the largest hospital in Mbandaka, a city of over one million inhabitants located on the Congo River. He will also dismantle an Ebola treatment center that he has established on the outskirts of the city.
And on July 15, MSF will entrust the control of an Ebola treatment center in the city of Iboko, near the epicenter of the epidemic, to the Ministry. of Health
"This outbreak of Ebola is not yet officially over, but we are very pleased with the progress that has been made," said Henry Gray, who led the implication. MSF in the DRC.
After erupting in the remote district of Iboko in the province of Ecuador in April, the Ebola virus crossed several cities before infecting four people in Mbandaka. A total of 55 cases were identified, 38 of which were confirmed by laboratory tests. Of these cases, 28 died, representing a mortality rate of 54%.
The last case was diagnosed on June 6th.
Public health officials have followed more than 1,500 people in contact with According to the latest status report of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Ebola has a period of incubation ranging up to 21 days, and all 1,500 of these contacts went through the three-week window
If no new cases emerge, Congo will be declared free from Ebola on July 22, once that he will have gone through two consecutive decades. incubation days without a new confirmed case.
This epidemic, the ninth known in modern times in the country, is the first to be used to protect front-line health workers and those who may come into contact. wit h the virus. A total of 3,268 people received the vaccine, known as rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP, including traditional healers, body burials, and even taxi drivers
. which could have proved a disastrous epidemic, only three years after an epidemic in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia claimed at least 11,300 lives.
The WHO sent more than 250 virus hunters, laboratory technicians and other experts to the province of Ecuador, as well as ambulances and megaphones and organized educational conferences in affected communities. The agency has requested $ 57 million from donors to pay the response, of which about 33.9 million have already been covered. The US Agency for International Development contributed $ 5.3 million to this fund
The outbreak in Equateur province could have been much worse, especially because the virus It is widespread in a large port city on the banks of the Congo River. The river is the main commercial and commercial artery in the heart of Africa, and health officials feared that the virus would spread on the barges that lead to the river, to big cities like Kisangani or Kinshasa, a More than city In 1965, WHO, the World Bank and non-governmental organizations funded preparedness and preparedness initiatives in Rwanda, Burundi, Republic of Congo and Center. African Republic.
[ad_2]
Source link
