The head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warns on Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo could become the worst ever. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya says the outbreak costs billions of dollars to contain later if authorities do not address critical weaknesses in the response quickly.
Government data confirms more than 830 cases of the rare Bundibugyo strain in Congo, with 196 of them fatal. No proven treatment or vaccine exists for the strain. The disease spreads through body fluids even after death and crosses three provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a fast rate.
“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it becomes worse than what we have in West Africa and DRC,” Kaseya tells a virtual meeting of African heads of state and donors in Burundi.
A Red Cross official said separately on Tuesday that the Ebola epidemic in eastern DRC has not yet peaked.
“We fear the disease takes one year to end,” Bruno Michon, operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, tells reporters by video link from eastern Congo.
A lack of treatment centres and community resistance to strict hygiene measures hamper the response. Health officials say the true scale remains unknown more than a month after authorities declare the outbreak.
Michon adds that IFRC teams, which handle community engagement and safe, dignified burials of Ebola victims, face verbal abuse, threats, and attacks in recent days.
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