Concerns of global Ebola spread grow as workers claim deadly virus was spreading unchecked for weeks
Health officials are sounding the alarm about the rapid spread of the Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 130 people and infected nearly 600 others, including an American.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was ‘deeply concerned by the scale and speed of the outbreak’ involving a rare strain of Ebola with a mortality rate of up to 50 percent.
Experts and aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have said the virus spread undetected for weeks after the first known deaths as authorities tested for the more common strain of Ebola and the results repeatedly came back negative.
The most recent outbreak involves Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), an Ebola variant for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
The CDC has increased its travel warning for the Democratic Republic of Congo to level 3, warning Americans to ‘reconsider nonessential travel’.
The agency also announced it would increase screening and monitoring for people arriving from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks and restrict entry to non-U.S. passport holders who have been in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
At least 136 people have died from the outbreak and nearly 600 cases are now suspected in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and Ghebreyesus said authorities “expect these numbers to continue to rise.”
He added that the risk of the epidemic spreading in these countries is high at the national and regional level, but the risk of spreading at the global level is low.
World Health Organization staff load medical supplies, including PPE, testing kits and body bags, onto a plane bound for Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo to help combat the Ebola outbreak
Security guards stand outside the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) Rodolphe Merieux Laboratory, where samples from suspected Ebola cases are being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But a man from DRC’s Ituri province said: BBC infected people were dying ‘too quickly’ and ‘Ebola tortured us’.
CDC officials said the risk to the general U.S. public is low but urged travelers to the region to avoid contact with sick people.
The CDC also said travelers should watch for Ebola symptoms for 21 days after leaving the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
An American doctor working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has tested positive for the virus, and six other American workers are feared to have also contracted the virus. All are being evacuated to Germany and the Czech Republic for care.
And concerns are growing in the United States because the Democratic Republic of Congo’s men’s soccer team He is scheduled to travel to the USA and play in the World Cup in Houston. TexasAgainst Portugal on 17 June.
CDC officials did not elaborate on screening and procedures ahead of the World Cup, but said the agency was “actively working with FIFA to ensure safe travel and passage” and ensuring “the American public remains safe throughout the competition.”
CDC is also sending personal protective equipment and distributing additional resources to the DRC and Uganda to provide ‘direct technical assistance for aggressive disease surveillance and contact tracing.’
The head of the WHO team in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Anne Ancia said WHO said the first known suspected case, a healthcare worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo, developed symptoms on April 24, but “patient zero” was not identified. access point.
Healthcare workers are seen at an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus has been endemic since its discovery in 1976, but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain.
Two other BVD outbreaks occurred in 2007 and 2012.
The most recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo occurred in 2018 and 2020, killing more than 1,000 people each. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, with more than 28,600 cases reported.
WHO said the current outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic, but it is considered an ‘international public health emergency’.
Countries that share borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo, such as Uganda and Rwanda, face the risk of further spread.
Ebola is spread through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as through contact with contaminated objects or infected animals such as bats or primates.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
The mortality rate of the Bundibugyo virus varies between 25 and 50 percent.
The Zaire strain, the most common type of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which was administered only during the epidemic.
Ancia said authorities are considering using the Ervebo vaccine, but it would take two months for any approved vaccine to be available, adding that he ‘doesn’t see us being done with this epidemic in two months’.
