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A US employee from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was tested positive for the Ebola virus, the first such incident that occurred during the current outbreak, according to the head of the mission to maintain the peace of the United States.
"I am writing to you today to inform you that my management team and I have just regretted that a new UN colleague based in Beni has been tested positive for the Ebola virus and that it is He is currently receiving the necessary medical care, "Leila Zerrougui wrote in the letter obtained by the Reuters News Agency.
Zerrougui said that the employee had not been to work for several weeks and that officials were in the process of finding this person's contacts.
The news came after health officials warned that the rate of new Ebola cases had more than doubled since September.
Increase in cases of concern
The sharp increase has worried health officials that the situation in eastern DRC is at a crossroads.
Either the epidemic worsens, or local residents finally respond to education campaigns and government edicts and no longer resist health workers.
According to statements by the DRC Ministry of Health, the death toll was 125 on Friday, out of a total of 201 reported cases (166 confirmed and 35 probable).
This epidemic, the 10th of the country, was initially reported on August 1st.
"The fact that we see more cases could also be a positive sign," said Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, on the phone from Geneva. "… We have seen in the past that sometimes people hid patients or were actively fleeing", humanitarian workers responsible for tracing the contacts of infected patients – an essential step to stop the spread of the deadly disease.
The attack keeps the workers in the interior
But insecurity complicates the intervention of the health community in the epicenter of the epidemic in the North Kivu region, where more than 100 armed opposition groups operate and more than one million displaced people.
The leap in reported cases follows an armed attack on 22 September in Beni, a town near the border with Uganda and the center of aid efforts. Eighteen people died, including 14 civilians, according to the army.
Jasarevic said that WHO health workers had been forced to stay indoors for two full days after the attack.
"The operations have been hampered by insecurity," Jasarevic said. "… And not just because of the [health] teams can not go out, but also because of the reaction of the population ".
Red Cross volunteers attacked
Other violence has hindered relief work in the area. Last week, three Red Cross volunteers who were part of an Ebola burial team were attacked and injured in the line of duty in Butembo town (north). East of the country), according to the DRC Red Cross. In one statement, it was reported that two of the volunteers were being treated for serious injuries.
The Red Cross statement reminded people that the body of an Ebola victim is highly infectious and requires careful handling. The Ebola virus spreads through contact with body fluids.
In addition, some families refused to allow humanitarian workers to control and treat potential patients, while other victims fled, suggesting the possibility of a spread of the virus in countries neighbors, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Jasarevic explained that "the reaction of the local population to the Ebola response is in some way related to the response to general insecurity", saying that if all these authorities, including international actors were not able to provide security, so it would be possible to try to control the outbreak? "
WHO had initially anticipated that the disease could be controlled within three months, partly thanks to a vaccine that proved effective for exposed but symptom-free people, and to new treatment drugs for people who have contracted the Ebola virus. .
But Peter Salama, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, said Thursday that the timing of the intervention needed to be revised.
"We expect that we will now wait another three or four months to actually stem this epidemic, again focusing on Beni and its surroundings," Salama said at a press conference in Geneva. .
This report comes from VOA's English in Africa service. VOA Carol Guensburg contributed.
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