The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces a dangerous culmination of negative circumstances as a result of the ongoing Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the country, World Health Organization (WHO) Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response Dr. Peter Salama said at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces a dangerous culmination of negative circumstances as a result of the ongoing Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the country, World Health Organization (WHO) Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response Dr. Peter Salama said at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
According to Salama, there have been 150 confirmed and probable cases, with over 100 deaths in the DRC as a result of the Ebola outbreak that was first registered in the country on August 1, mostly hitting the Ituri and North Kivu provinces. It came just months after the previous outbreak in May, which claimed the lives of 33 people.
"We are now extremely concerned that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks to months to create a potential perfect storm - a perfect storm of active conflict that limits our ability to access civilians; distrust by segments of the community already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder, driven by a fear of a terrifying disease, but also exploited and manipulated by local politicians prior to an election; and of course, a frightening high threat of a pathogen that will exploit these community and political fault-lines and not respect borders, whether they are provincial or international," Salama said.
Salama called the geographical spread of Ebola, the presence of armed groups, and the distrust within the community "grave obstacles" that the WHO was facing in the country.
The WHO official noted, however, that the number of cases per week had been gradually reducing and now fallen to 10 cases per week for the last three to four weeks.
In an attempt to contain the virus, the WHO is using experimental vaccines that were developed following the 2013-16 outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia that killed more than 11,000 people. The WHO also works with the community, including engaging in psychosocial care, awareness-raising activities, and providing safe and dignified burials in coordination with the local Ministry of Public Health.
