The rapid outbreak, which has also spread to neighboring Uganda, is caused by the rare and deadly Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. WHO’s Director of Health Alert and Response Operations, Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, told journalists in Geneva that per June 8 in DRC has been 550 confirmed cases and 101 deaths.
“The good news [is]we have 19 cumulative cured patients, so early identification and treatment saves lives,” he said.
Dr. Speaking from Bunia in Ituri province, which accounts for 94 percent of the total number of cases in the country, Mahamud explained that the increase in confirmed cases “is due to the scaling up of testing”. Several decentralized laboratories have been opened to expedite the analysis of suspected Ebola samples, including a fully functional facility in Mongbwalu, he said.
Uganda has reported 19 confirmed cases, including two deathsas well as a probable person who is dead. The WHO said there is so far no evidence of community transmission in Uganda.
Remove chance
In the DRC as of As of June 6, 5,040 contacts had been identified and were being followed up in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. The increased contact tracing has allowed health workers to reach 62 percent of contacts so far, with hopes of reaching the target of 90 to 95 percent “in the coming weeks,” said Dr. Mahamud. He described making “slow and steady progress” based on building trust and working with the community.
The WHO official emphasized that local health workers play a significant role in early identification and referral of cases to treatment centers. He described the current set-up as “a well-functioning system that is integrated from surveillance to contact tracing to the treatment center and to the laboratory”, along with effective data sharing.
Yet major challenges remain, including remote locations with limited connectivity, from which samples can take eight hours to reach a laboratory.
“Ituri is as big as France,” said Dr. Mahamud. “If you’re in Bunia, you can get your result in one or two hours,” while for places further away from testing facilities, the process can take 24 hours.
In a positive development, in remote Aru close to the Ugandan border, where samples have to drive 10 hours by road to test, a laboratory will be operational on Friday, he said.
So far, WHO has set up field laboratories in five affected areas to enable testing closer to the epicenter of the outbreak. Working with partners to support government-led efforts, the UN health agency has deployed over 100 staff to the DRC, delivered 40 tonnes of equipment and medical supplies and helped set up Ebola treatment centres.
