Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, director of health alert and response operations at the World Health Organization (WHO), who returned last week from a month in the DRC, said that as of Monday, 1,048 confirmed cases have been reported, including 267 deaths.
“This is the largest number of confirmed cases in the first month of an Ebola outbreak in Africahe said.
During the current outbreak due to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus, which was declared on May 15, it took only 37 days to reach 250 deaths, explained Dr. Mahamud, while in comparison it took 78 days to reach this number in the 2014 and 2016 West Africa outbreaks, and 130 days in the 2018 outbreak.
Families at risk
Ugochi Daniels, deputy director-general for operations at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), highlighted the dramatic impact of the disease on families, who carry “tremendous burdens”.
“Everyday life has become fraught with risks,” she insisted. “The journey to feed your family or earn a living can also become a journey into danger.”
The virus has become “more than a health crisis,” she explained. “It affects all aspects of daily life and brings uncertainty and fear.”
Mrs. Daniels said the outbreak is “centered on areas where people cross borders every day.” An effective response therefore requires maintaining surveillance as formal and informal cross-border movements continue, she explained, among communities affected by conflict and insecurity.
Since the start of the response, IOM and partners have screened over a million travelers “at key points of entry and along major mobility corridors,” she said.
The IOM official said that out of $55.8 million required to support cross-border coordination and monitoring across 11 countries over the next six months, there is still a funding gap of about $35 million.
“What is needed for us to get ahead of the outbreak is a collective commitment to ensure that the response is now fully resourced,” she insisted.
More hospital beds and tests
The WHO’s Dr Mahamud noted encouraging signs that the response has been expanded to keep pace with the spread.
The number of treatment beds has increased over the past two weeks, “from a handful to over 500 beds across 19 health zones,” he said.
At the same time, surveillance has been scaled upwith laboratory capacity going from 30 tests per day in Kinshasa at the start of the outbreak to over 2,000 tests per day through a network of eight decentralized laboratories across Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.
Paolo Cravero, Senior Officer, Communications and Media Relations at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), highlighted safe and dignified burials as another pillar of the response. The IFRC has provided dedicated kits and body bags to the affected areas despite their remote location and security challenges, he said.
“As in any crisis, any outbreak, such as Ebola, tension tends to grow,” Cravero emphasized. “And we have seen violence against our volunteers at [safe and dignified burial] websites.”
The IFRC spokesman highlighted the “lack of confidence in the response” and insisted the organization is “working hard with communities to bridge this gap.”
“Rumors and misinformation create some difficulties,” he acknowledged.
