The Ebola outbreak is concentrated in two trading cities in North Kivu Province. The Congolese Health Ministry says that 1,529 people have been infected in this current outbreak, and of those, 1,008 have died as of Friday.
This latest outbreak is the 10th recorded in the Congo in modern history. It began last summer Beni, which a town of about 250,000 people. Since that time, the virus has moved to the south, to the cities of Butembo and Katwa, where hundreds of new cases have been reported in recent months.
At a press conference on Friday, the executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan said that while over 100,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus, the WHO is planning to expand its vaccination efforts because the organization is fearing the worst.
“We are anticipating a scenario of continued intense transmission,” he said, according to Business Insider. However, attempts at vaccinating more people may be difficult due to the increasingly volatile security situation in DRC.
CTV News Canada is reporting that Ebola treatment centers have come under repeated attack, forcing international aid workers to withdraw, leaving government health officials to staff clinics in the hotspots of Butembo and Katwa.
And this is a huge problem. There are dozens of rebel groups operate in the region, and these armed militias are to blame, in part, for the communities negative response to health workers trying to treat the sick. People are now afraid to go to the treatment centers when they are sick, instead, staying home, infecting family and friends.
“Since January we’ve experienced 119 separate attacks, 42 of which have been directly on health facilities with 85 health personnel either injured or killed in those settings. So we are dealing with a difficult and volatile situation,” said Ryan.
“Fundamentally, every time we have managed to regain control over the virus and contain its spread we have suffered major, major security events,” he added.
Last month, the WHO said in a press statement that WHO epidemiologist Dr. Richard Mouzoko had been killed by armed men while working to contain the disease.
The WHO has also been hampered in their care and treatment of people in the Ebola outbreak because only half of the currently requested funds have been received, which could lead to WHO and its partners rolling back some activities precisely when they are most needed.
And there is cause for concern as to what could happen in the near future. Health officials are tracking 12,000 people who have come into contact with someone who has contracted the Ebola virus. As of Thursday, the health ministry was tracking 286 possible cases across the region.
