Experts: DRC Ebola outbreak fueled by attacks - CIDRAP

-

By early February 2019, transmission of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) Ituri province was largely under control, and declines were observed in Katwa and Butembo, several leading experts on the outbreak wrote yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

But a sudden increase in violent attacks on healthcare workers and facilities throughout North Kivu province have caused the outbreak to spike in the last 2 months and become intractable.

The experts, including DRC Minister of Health Oly Ilunga Kalenga, MD, and the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional director, Matshidiso Moeti, MD, published a special report on the 10-month-long outbreak, the world's second largest.

"Numerous operational challenges posed by chronic insecurity are compounded by political tensions associated with contested national elections. Violence has increasingly been targeted at EVD response teams and facilities, exacerbating the spread of the virus," they said.

Today, Reuters reported that 26 members of a rebel group thought to be linked to the Islamic State were killed near Beni in a shootout with DRC military. The rebels are part of the Allied Democratic Forces, but the Islamic State is also claiming responsibility for the attack, which was directed against the Congolese army.

Need for political will to end outbreak

The authors of the NEJM report said though the outbreak officially began on Aug 1, 2018, in Ituri province, cases likely date back to April of that year. This was the first time Ebola was recorded in this part of the DRC, and most residents had never heard of the virus before: Malaria, diarrhea, and childhood diseases were the common illnesses among communities.

Nosocomial transmission likely played a large role in early transmission. Though the outbreak was quickly contained in Ituri province within 1 month, infected people traveling to Beni, Butembo, and Katwa, brought the disease to those locations.

Violence is what has allowed Ebola to continue. The authors produced a graph that shows how major times of unrest in the outbreak region have been followed by increased Ebola transmission, including a massacre in Beni, violent protests after the DRC's recent presidential election, and February's burning of Ebola treatment centers.

The authors concluded by saying that all the tools of outbreak control are in place, including an effective vaccine, surveillance means, and growing community engagement. But without political will, the outbreak will go on.

"The alignment of key political and armed groups behind the response effort is essential to stop the violence against health care and rehabilitate the humanitarian space required for outbreak control," the authors said.

Total now 1,945 cases, including 2 newly infected health workers

Yesterday the DRC's ministry of health confirmed 19 new cases of Ebola, raising the outbreak total to 1,945, including 1,302 deaths.

Fifteen new deaths were recorded yesterday, and 297 suspected cases are still under investigation. Of the 15 newly recorded deaths, 10 occurred in the community, which raises the risk of transmission.

There are now 108 health workers infected with the virus, including two newly diagnosed workers from Kalunguta and Mabalako. Both had been vaccinated. Thirty-six health workers have died during this outbreak.

Vaccination efforts continue, with a total of 126,565 people reached as of yesterday.

Lessons from West Africa outbreak

Yesterday in the Lancet, authors from the Ebola Gbalo Research Group published an article outlining lessons learned during the response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2013-2015.

Community engagement was the key, they suggested, for successful response efforts.

"Burial teams and contact tracing worked best when the recruits were local," the authors wrote. "Where local agents, including health personnel, government workers, and families, were strongly involved in planning and implementing the response it was more effective."

See also:

May 29 NEJM report

May 30 Reuters story

May 29 DRC report

May 29 Lancet article



http://bit.ly/30UQP8J

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Azar calls for transparency in Ebola-like death in Tanzania | TheHill - The Hill

-
Image
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Monday called for transparency from Tanzanian officials in the case of a patient who recently died after suffering Ebola-like symptoms, The Associated Press  reported . Azar told reporters in Uganda that he and others are “very concerned” and urged Tanzania’s government to share lab results related to the case. ADVERTISEMENT Congo, which borders Tanzania, is in the midst of the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, with confirmed cases now exceeding 3,000. Azar said efforts were underway to secure Tanzania’s compliance with international health regulations and obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) “to protect Tanzanians as well as all people in the region," according to the AP. Tanzania’s government said Saturday there is no confirmed case of Ebola inside its borders. According to an internal WHO document obtained by AP, the patient, a 34-year-old woman, died on Sept. 8 and was bu...
Read more

A Russian lab containing smallpox and Ebola exploded - Vox.com

-
Image
Russia’s State Research Center of Virology, in the city of Koltsovo in Siberia, has one of the largest collections of dangerous viruses anywhere in the world. During the Cold War, the lab developed biological weapons and defenses against them, and it reportedly stored dangerous strains of smallpox, anthrax, and Ebola among other viruses. So lots of people were concerned when an explosion ripped through the facility on Monday. According to Russian independent media , the laboratory was undergoing repairs when a gas bottle exploded, sparking a 30-square-meter fire that left one worker severely burned. Glass throughout the building was reportedly destroyed in the blast, and the fire reportedly spread through the building’s ventilation system . The lab is one of only two in the world known to still have samples of smallpox, which was eradicated from the wild in 1977. The other is in the United States . Experts say that under certain circumstances, an explosion could lead to the releas...
Read more

Distinguishing viruses responsible for influenza-like illness

-
Image
bird flu 2021 :: Article Creator Bird Flu Pandemic Preparedness Activities Are Not Evidence Of A Conspiracy Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino. Flu viruses have a long history of making animals and humans sick. This includes a track record of causing pandemics, which can occur when unfamiliar viruses begin to spread widely among humans. Recently, a type of bird flu — called H5N1 — has been spreading among poultry, dairy cows and wild animals in the U.S. And infecting some farmworkers, adding to existing concerns about the virus's pandemic potential. The U.S. Government, in collaboration with others around the world, has a history of flu pandemic preparedness activities, including monitoring the flu viruses circulating in people and certain animals and stockpiling relevant vaccines and antivirals. These activities are meant to ensure scientists spot any concerning changes to flu viruses' genetics or circulati...
Read more