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The Ebola epidemic, which has already killed just over 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, continues to grow and threatens to surpass that of 2014 in West Africa, which claimed the lives of 11,325 people said an official of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said.
"We are very worried. This epidemic could be the biggest epidemic if nothing is done and the number of cases continues at the same rate, "said Ray Arthur, director of the CDC's Global Disease Detection Center, at Yahoo News. "This outbreak has been going on for a year now, with the first cases coming back in April 2018, but the outbreak was only recognized and reported in August. But in the last three or four weeks we have seen about one-fifth of the cases, which is a marked increase. "
Mwamini Kahindo, an Ebola survivor who cares for confirmed babies, is holding a baby outside the red zone at the Ebola treatment center in Butembo, Democratic Republic of Congo, on March 25, 2019. (Photo: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
The sects fights have complicated the medical response to the virus from governments and foreign groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders. Worse still, health workers have been attacked by anti-government rebels, 85 people have been killed or wounded since January, a WHO official told the Associated Press.
In October, when the number of reported cases reached 300, the Trump Administration, citing security concerns, banned US health experts from working or traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo to assist in the latest outbreak. . Doctors Without Borders removed staff from affected areas in February after attacks on treatment centers.
With fewer health workers on the ground in North Kivu, eastern Congo province where the epidemic is concentrated, the WHO changed its strategy this week from research and vaccination contacts of people diagnosed with the disease at the opening of the contextual vaccination. clinics in relatively safe communities.
"We know that vaccination saves lives in this outbreak," said the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a statement. "We also know that we are still struggling to ensure that contacts in each case receive the vaccine as quickly as possible."
Congolese Red Cross staff carry the coffin of a Congolese woman, Kahambu Tulirwaho, who died of Ebola, at a funeral service in a cemetery in Butembo, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 28, 2019. (Photo: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
It has been difficult to obtain proven evidence for containing past outbreaks of Ebola – monitoring and surveillance of an infected patient's contacts – in the densely populated war zone, which has further increased the need for solid supply of vaccine. Until now, out of the 5.7 million inhabitants of North Kivu, 111,000 have received the Ebola vaccine and 30,000 of them are health workers. Merck, the US pharmaceutical company that has developed the vaccine that has not yet been approved by the FDA, is working to increase production. The magnitude of the need, however, has prompted WHO to propose a dose reduction strategy to expand supply. However, said Arthur, the prospect of a massive vaccination against Ebola will not be fast.
"If we could turn on a switch and do it overnight, we would do it. The US government is working closely with Merck to monitor their production schedules and supplies, but it's not easy to quickly increase vaccine production, "said Arthur. "You have quality control tests, etc. There are efforts to increase the supply, but the schedule is not as fast as you might think."
In the meantime, fearing that the current outbreak of Ebola – transmitted through contact with body fluids and killing 66% of those infected – is spreading to neighboring countries, the CDC has deployed staff to the region.
"The more the transmission lasts with the growing number of cases, one of our concerns concerns the largest population centers of North Kivu, a city called Goma, which is on the border with Rwanda and we are very concerned about the cases that occur there. would increase the likelihood that they will cross the border, "Arthur said. "There is a lot of border traffic, about 10,000 passages a day, between [the Democratic Republic of Congo] and in Uganda. Given this concern, the CDC has deployed more than 100 staff members in three risk countries, Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan, to help these countries prepare to respond to a case on the ground. optionally ".
According to Arthur, mistrust of foreigners is common in North Kivu and a misinformation campaign on social media has led many people to think that the fear of Ebola is a hoax or that vaccines are at the origin of the disease.
"The epidemic will not be controlled without the cooperation of the community," Arthur said. "It's true with any Ebola outbreak. If the cases do not want to identify the people with whom they have been in contact, or if they do not want to cooperate with the search teams of contacts who come to visit them every day for 21 days or who want to hide or something else, so we really have challenges. "
The perfect storm of a deadly infectious virus, violent social upheaval and misinformation of social media has worried health officials and spurred them to more bad news.
"Every wrinkle that could have occurred in this outbreak seems to be occurring," Arthur said. "That's why we are concerned, given the current trajectory. Decidedly, things will deteriorate before improving.
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