GENEVA – States neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at great danger from Ebola and should act immediately to counter the deadly virus, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on May 25.
“Countries bordering DRC are at especially high risk and should take immediate action,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that he would travel on May 26 to the DRC, the vast, central African country at the epicentre of the current outbreak.
“The outbreak is spreading rapidly,” he told a virtual ministerial meeting on the viral haemorrhagic fever, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
He said the current outbreak was “especially challenging”.
“First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. We are urgently scaling up operations but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,” he said by video link from Geneva.
Secondly, the eastern provinces of the DRC, where the outbreak was first detected in mid-May, “are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months (and) there is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population”.
Thirdly, he pointed out, there were “no approved vaccines or therapeutics” for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.
The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed Ebola deaths and 220 suspected deaths in the DRC since mid-May, while also recording a further 900 suspected cases since Kinshasa declared the outbreak on May 15.
The United Nations agency said the true spread of the virus – which experts suspect was circulating under the radar for some time – was probably much wider.
One person is confirmed dead in neighbouring Uganda, with a further six confirmed infected after the health ministry confirmed two new cases on May 25.
Ten other African countries are “at risk” of infection, the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC, warned on May 23.
These are Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya said “high mobility and insecurity” contributed to the regional spread of the outbreak, which the WHO has declared an international emergency.
Insecurity is a huge obstacle in the eastern DRC, which has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving a litany of armed groups.
State services in rural areas of Ituri province have been largely absent for decades.
South Kivu province is controlled by the M23 armed group, which has never managed an epidemic like Ebola.
Mr Tedros said it was vital to address the trust deficit in Ebola-affected communities.
Two hospitals in Ituri have been attacked by suspicious locals in the past five days – one in Mongbwala, where the outbreak was initially detected, and the other in Rwampara, where tents used to isolate Ebola patients were torched.
The violence in Rwampara erupted after a deceased man’s family was prevented from taking his body away for burial because of contamination risks.
“Loved ones are throwing themselves at the bodies, touching the corpses… while organising mourning rituals bringing together loads of people”, Mr Jean Marie Ezadri, a civil society leader in Ituri, told AFP last week.
Mr Tedros said the WHO was pouring money, medical supplies and staff into the DRC to support the authorities and speeding up clinical trials on potential treatments.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” he said. “But we know this virus and we know how to stop it.” AFP
