The Ebola outbreak in the Congo continues to spread, including to patients who have no known links to existing cases.
According to the World Health Organization, four out of every five new cases of Ebola are now among people who have no link to other known cases.
“Eighty percent of the… new patients confirmed are coming outside of known contact lists” in the heart of the outbreak in Bunia, Ituri province, WHO Emergencies Director Chikwe Ihekweazu told Reuters.
The true scale of the outbreak could be between two and four times larger than official data suggest.
So far, data record that 1,792 people have been infected and 625 killed.
About 90% of all recorded cases are still concentrated in Ituri province, especially in Bunia, Rwampara, Mongbwalu and Nyakunde.
Recently, cases have been reported in North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo.
The Bundibugyo strain of the virus has milder symptoms at first than the Zaire strain, which may be encouraging families to care for sick members at home, increasing the risk of spread.
“Patients are out there much longer than we would like,” Ihekweazu said.
“The longer patients are outside of care, the more likely they are to transmit this illness.”
Tens of thousands of new community health workers are being trained to conduct house-to-house sweeps and encourage infected individuals to visit health centers for treatment.
As well as lack of resources, mistrust of health workers and ongoing war in the region are exacerbating attempts to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
Over two million people have been displaced in the region, with hundreds of thousands living in unsanitary refugee camps.
Movement of refugees is likely to increase the spread, especially to crowded urban regions.
“For refugees and internally displaced people already facing trauma and insecurity and a lack of adequate humanitarian assistance, the outbreak is fueling fear and misinformation, eroding trust in response teams and delaying access to life‑saving care,” the UN’s refugee agency said.
2 Responses
CLO2 in its various forms will end the outbreak within a week.
Hey, at least it isn’t mouse pox.