Ebola cases in Beni are in the top 100 and 6 more cases have been reported

Medical teams confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus in six other people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), all from the Beni hotspot, where recent violence over the weekend has slowed down immunization activities, announced today. 39, the Ministry of Health.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised new concerns about the resurgence of new violence affecting the response and the growing number of Ebola infections among children.

The cases in Beni pass 100

Of the six new confirmed cases reported today, two involved patients have died in the community, which increases the risk of spread, given that the viral load is highest in the event of serious illness and at the time of death and that those who died outside health facilities were likely to have been cared for by family members and other poorly protected persons.

Putting people in isolation and in treatment is a key element of the outbreak response, and ongoing reports of deaths in the community are a sign that stakeholders are struggling to identify all active chains of transmission.

The six new cases bring the total outbreak to 244 cases, including 209 confirmed cases and 35 probable cases. The new deaths bring the total of the dead to 155.

In its daily update, the Ministry of Health said that cases in the health zone of Beni had exceeded 100 cases and now have 102 cases.

As feared a new wave of violence by the rebels this weekend, immunization activities in Beni are slowing because of insecurity in parts of the city, according to the Ministry of Health. To date, 20,939 people have been vaccinated, including 9,853 from Beni.

WHO updates its flags on safety issues and diseases in children

In its regular status report, WHO said the main concerns were the outbreak of cases over the past four weeks, particularly in Beni, and the security teams in Beni and Butembo.

"The persistence of security-related incidents has serious consequences for civilians and front-line workers, forcing the suspension of Ebola virus disease control activities and increasing the risk of spreading the virus," he said. added the press release. Vaccination in Beni could not take place in Beni on October 21 because of community protests following the attacks of the previous day, the WHO added. He also said investigations were continuing in the steady stream of confirmed cases that are unrelated to known chains of transmission, a sign that the virus continues to spread undetected.

According to one stat report today, the increasing number of confirmed cases in patients who are not on known contact lists threatens the measures taken to contain the epidemic and undermines the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign, which is based on a centralized strategy vaccination of contacts of confirmed cases and their contacts. Contacts.

WHO has also indicated that recent cases in Beni include a disproportionate number of illnesses in children 16 and under. Of the 70 cases reported since 1 October, 30 (43%) were children, including 13 infants and children under 5 years of age. He added that investigations were underway to identify sources of infection in children and to interrupt transmission.

In addition, the WHO reported that the Ebola virus was confirmed by a health worker in Beni on 20 October, bringing the total number of health workers infected with the outbreak to 20, of whom 20 were confirmed. Three died of their diseases.

CDC director urged to keep Ebola virus experts in the epidemic zone

The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, said that he was trying to defend US experts in the outbreak area, but that officials in the administration Trump have dismissed it for security reasons, stat reported today.

According to previous reports, the State Department has recommended the removal of experts from the CDC, which happened several weeks ago.

Redfield said stat at the opening session of the Milken Institute's Health Futures Summit, he felt that he was disadvantaged by the fact that health officials were not able to do so. had no CDC expertise on the ground in the DRC and that he liked to see "a small footprint of the CDC employees there."

See also:

October 23 update of the DRC

October 23, WHO status report

October 23 stat story about the challenges of immunization

October 23 stat story about Redfield's comments