WHO calls for community cooperation to contain Ebola outbreak in DRC | Ebola
The World Health Organization has said that controlling the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo requires social cooperation and is “everyone’s job”.
The organisation’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the defense on Sunday during a visit to eastern Congo, where some residents were protesting strict medical protocols for handling victims’ bodies.
“We can stop this Ebola, and everyone who has it can recover. But the rule is that this is everyone’s business and every citizen must be involved,” Ghebreyesus said in his speech at the opening of a treatment center in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, the center of the epidemic.
Protesters complained that restrictions placed on victims’ bodies violated local burial rites; this sighting was linked to at least three attacks on health centres.
According to Ghebreyesus, there is no vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which is the agent behind the current outbreak, but people infected can recover.
“If you come to healthcare facilities when you have symptoms, you can get support and recover, so the important thing is to come forward as early as possible and get the necessary support.”
Five patients have recovered and four will be discharged on Sunday after another patient was discharged earlier, the WHO chief said. The organization recorded 906 suspected cases and 223 suspicious deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Authorities in neighboring Uganda confirmed nine cases and one death.
Clashes between rival armed groups in the mineral-rich Ituri region have complicated relief efforts and prompted Ghebreyesus to call for a ceasefire: “No cause, no conflict, no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease.”
Brazilian health officials said they were monitoring two patients in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for possible Ebola infection. A 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of Congo “exhibited symptoms such as fever that met the definition of a suspected Ebola case,” the São Paulo state government said Saturday. Meanwhile, the health department in Rio de Janeiro state said it activated safety protocols after a Ugandan man showed “viral symptoms such as cough, chills and diarrhea.”
The outbreak, which WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern, is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The disease was first identified in the Central African country in 1976 and has an average mortality rate of all epidemics. 50%.
Health officials and aid workers have complained about shortages of basic supplies such as masks. Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri last week, and the US announced $80 million (£60 million) in additional aid, bringing its total commitment to $112 million.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said national incident systems should be activated quickly and investments in pandemic preparedness made permanent.
International support is vital and most effective when it is aligned with the strategies of African institutions and African governments, the organisation’s chief executive, Jean Kaseya, told the Financial Times on Sunday. “Africa’s response to Ebola must be defined by Africa itself,” he wrote.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Saturday that the spread of the disease was extremely worrying and that never before had so many cases been recorded in such a short time.
Alan Gonzalez, the organisation’s deputy director, said MSF teams “witnessed a response that has not yet caught up with the rapid spread of the epidemic”. “The reality today is that no one knows the true extent and severity of this epidemic. New suspected cases are reported every day, but hundreds of samples remain untested.”
