Per As of June 17, 896 confirmed cases and 232 deaths had been reported in 31 health zones in the country where Uganda confirms 19 cases and two deaths, according to the latest updates released on Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO).
To safely deliver life-saving aid, WHO chief Tedros last month called for a ceasefire amid decades-long clashes between Congolese authorities and the armed M23 group in eastern DRC, where more than two million forcibly displaced people – including more than 320,000 refugees – live and Ebola continues to spread.
Now the risk is regional, said Dr. Allen Maina of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and noted that eastern DRC flanks an area where trade, family ties and refugee movements link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan.
Disease and armed conflict
As such, UNHCR is strengthening preparedness in these countries and working with governments, WHO and partners to strengthen surveillance, screening, infection prevention, communication and water, sanitation and hygiene support in refugee-hosting areas and border corridors.
“We aim to prevent further cross-border transmission without impeding people seeking safetyhe said.
An example occurred on June 7, he said, when UNHCR monitored the arrival of about 2,250 people from Mbau, 20 km from Beni, one of the epicenters of the outbreak, after movements by armed groups had sparked panic and led them to flee to Oicha, North Kivu, an Ebola-affected zone already hosting more than 1,430 people.
Preparedness on the front line
More than 115 experts from the UN health agency have been deployed across affected provinces, with over 110 tonnes of emergency supplies delivered to support frontline operations, said WHO’s interim regional emergency director Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire from Bunia, DRC.
Diagnostic and treatment capacity continued to expand, but access restrictions continued to limit operations in some high-risk areas, she warned.
“One month after the outbreak was declared, the situation remained serious and continued to develop,” she said. “Cases continued to be reported across multiple areas, underscoring the need to sustain and accelerate response efforts.”
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The Ebola outbreak is playing out across one of the most active border crossings on the continent, where thousands move every day in search of safety, work, health care and connection with their families, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“Understanding human mobility patterns was one of our most powerful tools in stopping the spread of disease,” said an IOM spokesman, who announced that the UN agency has conducted more than a million screenings to date and began scaling up operations in the DRC and neighboring Uganda on Friday.
Screenings are taking place at borders and along key routes and travel corridors across affected and vulnerable countries, including support at over 110 points of entry, IOM senior migration health adviser Kit Leung said.
90 percent mortality among pregnant women
Death rates among pregnant women infected with Ebola had been as high as 90 percent, and perinatal mortality (the period just before or after birth) had reached 100 percent in some settings, according to the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, UNFPA.
“This outbreak was also one maternal health emergencies and protection for women and girls,” said UNFPA Deputy Country Representative Noemi Dalmonte, speaking from the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa.
As part of the broader Ebola response, the agency is focusing on pregnancy, childbirth, gender-based violence and building community trust, and is deploying 153 midwives in eastern DRC to help maintain safe childbirth, emergency obstetric care and postnatal care, with additional deployments planned, she said.
Push for emergency funding
Some UN agencies are calling for emergency funding to help them continue to tackle the Ebola outbreak on the ground:
- UNFPA’s urgent appeal for $17.1 million to sustain life-saving sexual and reproductive health services in DRC
- As part of a cross-agency effort, UNHCR is seeking $14 million for its Ebola preparedness and response from July to November to help forcibly displaced people and their host communities in the DRC and Uganda, while strengthening preparedness in Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan
- The UN in Uganda, together with humanitarian partners, has launched an emergency appeal for $15.8 million to support the country’s national response
