WHO says Congo Ebola outbreak ‘overwhelming’ responders as patients flee clinics | Today’s news
(Bloomberg) — Ebola is spreading faster in the Democratic Republic of Congo than rescuers can stop, the World Health Organization warned, as suspected deaths topped 220 and treatment centers came under attack in the country’s conflict-torn east.
Congo has reported 101 confirmed Ebola infections, 930 suspected cases and 221 suspected deaths, according to health ministry figures released late Monday. More than 2,200 contacts have now been identified in 11 affected health zones covering the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.
“We are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday during a virtual briefing of African health ministers. “At this point, the epidemic is overtaking us.
The outbreak is increasingly exposing the strain on public health systems in eastern Congo, where armed conflict, mass displacement and mistrust of authorities complicate efforts to isolate patients and track infections. Health officials warned that attacks on hospitals and unsafe burials were accelerating transmission.
At least 25 Ebola patients fled treatment facilities in Ituri over the weekend after isolation tents were burned and hospitals were attacked by mobs demanding the bodies be released for burial, Reuters reported, citing local hospital officials. One confirmed Ebola patient remained at large in the community, the news agency said.
The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. WHO officials are now discussing experimental vaccines and clinical trials involving antiviral drugs and monoclonal antibodies.
American surgeon Peter Stafford, who contracted Bundibugyo Ebola while working in the Congo, has been transferred to a high-security isolation unit in Berlin, where his wife and four children are being quarantined after exposure, Germany’s Charité hospital said Monday. He was severely weakened but not critically ill, the hospital said.
Uganda has reported seven confirmed Ebola cases linked to the outbreak, including several health workers.
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