\n
In an update on the fast-developing situation in eastern DRC, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that beyond the several dozen confirmed cases of infection, there are almost 600 suspected cases of Ebola\u00a0Bundibugyo virus\u00a0and 139 suspected deaths<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected<\/strong>,\u201d the WHO Director-General told journalists in Geneva.<\/p>\nUganda reported two confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda\u2019s capital, Kampala, he added.<\/p>\n
In the absence of any vaccine or therapeutics for the virus – which Tedros stressed is extremely rare and was last detected in 2007 – WHO teams are already working with community leaders in the epicentre province, Ituri, to help prevent wider transmission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Decades of violence in mineral-rich eastern DR Congo have contributed to chronic vulnerability among the population, including healthcare workers caught up in ongoing insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, there are more than two million people internally displaced<\/strong> in the affected provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, where the provincial capital of Goma remains under the control of rebel militia M23.<\/p>\n\u201cWe always have a team in Goma and we always continue to provide us support to the population. And this is what we will continue doing this, during this outbreak\u2026we never left Goma during all the insecurity happening, so we will continue staying to provide the security to the community we serve,\u201d stressed WHO\u2019s\u00a0Dr Marie Roseline Belizaire, Regional Emergency Director (ad interim) and Incident Manager.<\/p>\n
Danger zone<\/h2>\n
Underscoring the\u00a0\u201cinherently challenging\u201d task of detecting outbreaks of Ebola in Ituri province where April saw a new spike in civilian deaths, WHO\u2019s Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, explained that effective disease surveillance depends on reliable community reporting, local health facilities being open and laboratory confirmation of infection. \u201cIn remote or insecure areas, it can take time for cases to be recognized,\u201d he said, pointing out that Ebola\u00a0Bundibugyo virus was only identified after samples were transported some 1,700 kilometres (1,056 miles) across the country to the capital, Kinshasa.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as WHO was aware of the [threat], support was provided to DR Congo to investigate as quickly as possible. And this ended up with the confirmation late last week,\u201d stressed Dr Anais Legand, WHO Technical Officer for Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers. \u201cInvestigations are ongoing to ascertain when and where exactly this outbreak started. Given the scale, we are thinking that it started probably a couple of months ago, but investigations are ongoing and our priority is really to cut the transmission chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s briefing followed a\u00a0meeting of the WHO \u200bEmergency Committee \u200con Tuesday in Geneva which confirmed that the Ebola outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern but not \u200ba pandemic emergency.<\/p>\n
Chair of the panel, Prof Lucille H Blumberg, stressed that Ebola transmission is through direct contact with blood and body fluids of an infected person \u2013 which was likely the case of a patient who died on 5 May in Bunia, capital city of Ituri province, after their family decided to replace the coffin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it’s not casual contact, it’s not airborne. I think we need to be aware of that<\/strong>. And this relates to travel restrictions, which are not supported under the [International Health Regulations]\u00a0IHR recommendations,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\nProf Blumbert underlined the challenges of bringing the outbreak under control given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, security challenges, the highly mobile population, and close proximity to many borders.<\/p>\n
\u201cResources, additional people\u2026research and development of countermeasures [are] urgently required,\u201d she insisted, including intensified surveillance and identification of potential contacts.<\/p>\n
It was in accordance with IHR Article 12 that Tedros on Sunday declared a public health emergency of international concern over the Ebola outbreak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an update on the fast-developing situation in eastern DRC, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[482,4862,2215,691,1389,534],"class_list":["post-85442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-congo","tag-ebola","tag-emergency","tag-high","tag-pandemic","tag-risk"],"yoast_head":"\n
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