Taking stock of the rapidly evolving situation in eastern DRC, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that beyond the several dozen confirmed cases of infection, there are nearly 600 suspected cases of Ebola Bundibugyo virus and 139 suspected deaths.
“We expect these numbers to continue to rise, given the length of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected.“, the WHO director-general told journalists in Geneva.
Uganda has reported two confirmed cases of Ebola in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, he added.
With no vaccine or treatment for the virus – which Tedros said is extremely rare and was last detected in 2007 – WHO teams are already working with community leaders in the epicenter province of Ituri to help prevent wider transmission.
Decades of violence in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have contributed to chronic vulnerability of the population, particularly healthcare workers, caught in persistent insecurity.
According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, there are more than two million people internally displaced in the affected provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, where the provincial capital of Goma remains under the control of the M23 rebel militia.
“We still have a team in Goma and we still continue to provide support to the population. And that is what we will continue to do during this outbreak… we never left Goma during all the insecurity, so we will continue to stay to ensure the safety of the community we serve,” emphasized WHO’s Dr Marie Roseline Belizaire, Regional Emergency Director (acting) and Incident Manager.
Danger zone
Highlighting the “inherently difficult” task of detecting Ebola outbreaks in Ituri province, where April saw another surge in civilian deaths, WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi explained that effective disease surveillance depends on reliable community reporting, the opening of local health facilities and laboratory confirmation of infection. “In remote or insecure areas, recognizing cases can take time,” he said, noting that Bundibugyo Ebola was only identified after samples were transported some 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) across the country to the capital, Kinshasa.
“As soon as WHO became aware of [threat]support was provided to DR Congo to investigate as quickly as possible. And it ended with confirmation at the end of last week,” stressed Dr. Anais Legand, WHO technical lead for viral hemorrhagic fevers. “Investigations are underway to determine when and where exactly this outbreak began. Given its scale, we think it probably started a few months ago, but investigations are ongoing and our priority is really to cut the chain of transmission.
Wednesday’s briefing followed a meeting of the WHO Emergency Committee on Tuesday in Geneva, which confirmed that the Ebola outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern but not a pandemic emergency.
Panel chair Professor Lucille H Blumberg stressed that Ebola transmission occurs through direct contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person – which was likely the case for a patient who died on May 5 in Bunia, capital of Ituri province, after his family decided to replace the coffin.
“SO, it’s not accidental contact, it’s not aerial. I think we need to be aware of this. And this concerns travel restrictions, which are not supported by the [International Health Regulations] RSI recommendations,” she insisted.
Professor Blumbert highlighted the challenges of containing the outbreak, given the current humanitarian crisis, security concerns, the highly mobile population and the proximity of many borders.
“Additional resources, people…research and development of countermeasures [are] “This is an urgent need,” she insisted, in particular by intensifying surveillance and identification of potential contacts.
It is in accordance with Article 12 of the IHR that Tedros declared on Sunday a public health emergency of international concern in the face of the Ebola epidemic.
