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Nearly 2 months after the start of the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the virus has killed at least 100 people, and rising violence by armed opposition groups continues to complicate the response, said one official. WHO.
At a press conference, Peter Salama, MBBS, MPH, The WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response said the response in North Kivu province had reached a "critical stage".
According to Salama, there have been 150 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola and at least 100 deaths due to the virus in the current epidemic, but he said the trends were positive in recent weeks, the number of cases having gone from about 40 a week to 10. In addition, intervention teams were able to contact and treat close to 100% of all cases confirmed by the ring vaccination method.
"We have seen real progress in the tools we have, including the vaccination program using the experimental Merck vaccine," said Salama. "It has now reached more than 11,700 people, which is the largest use of an Ebola vaccine we have ever seen."
However, Mr Salama said the response faces a series of "serious obstacles", including an increase in attacks by armed opposition groups in the region of the epidemic. He said that there had been attacks seven times: August 24 and six attacks between September 3 and 22.
Salama described the latest attack on the city of Beni – the base of the response operations of the WHO – as the most violent and dramatic attack ever. He stated that this resulted in at least 21 deaths, including 17 civilians, and that it was the first time that civilians were targeted indiscriminately in place of state forces or the peace of the United Nations.
"I've already mentioned the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu as probably the most difficult context we've faced," Salama said. "We are now extremely concerned that several factors may come together in the coming weeks or months to create a perfect storm, an active storm of conflict, limiting our ability to access civilians; mistrust of segments of the community already traumatized by decades of conflict; and murder, driven by fear of a terrifying disease but also exploited and manipulated by local politicians before an election and, of course, a high-risk scary pathogen that will exploit these community and political fault lines and will not respect not the provincial or international borders.
Salama said residents of Beni and surrounding communities would demonstrate and cry until Friday, effectively shutting down the activities of the WHO. More than 80 WHO staff members in Beni have been confined to the emergency operations center or their hotels for the time being, he said, which had a negative impact on the Ebola awareness.
"Yesterday, we only reached 20% of confirmed and probable case contacts, which means that 80% of people at risk could not be contacted," Salama said. "All this week we can have cases that become more symptomatic and infectious."
Salama explained that while most members of the community have been receptive, politicians and rebel group leaders exploit many areas of mistrust and resistance. This exploitation forces people to refuse follow-up and acute care and to take refuge in the surrounding forests, thus contributing to the disappearance of cases and the spread of Ebola in the red zones and bordering countries, has -he adds.
"We once again call on all parties and all governments or groups that have influence over these parties to help protect the protagonists and civilians and our access to them," Salama said. "We call on the international community to continue funding interventions in North Kivu and neighboring provinces and neighboring countries, primarily in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi, and we call these countries [to prepare]. "- by Caitlyn Stulpin
Disclosure: Salama does not report any relevant financial information.
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