WHO warns DR Congo Ebola outbreak remains ‘concerning’ as violence disrupts response

Kinshasa, Nov 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Thursday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains "concerning," with hundreds of new infections reported each week and escalating violence threatening to reverse months of progress in containing the deadly disease.

"The overall picture remains concerning," Marie Roseline Belizaire, WHO's regional emergency director for Africa, told an online press briefing, warning that transmission continues to spread into new areas despite declines in some of the initial epicentres.

Nearly six months after the outbreak was declared, the DRC is still reporting around 400 to 500 new cases every week, she said, describing it as the largest Ebola outbreak in the country's history and the second-largest ever recorded worldwide.

According to the latest situation report released by the DRC's health authorities, the country had recorded 11,114 confirmed cases, including 5,433 deaths, as of Tuesday, with a case fatality rate of 48.9 per cent, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Belizaire warned that insecurity has become a major obstacle to containing the outbreak, with the WHO having verified 81 attacks on healthcare since the epidemic began in May.

During an armed attack on November 5 in Cantine-Aloya, in the Beni territory of the eastern DRC's North Kivu Province, 66 civilians, including three health workers, were killed and three health facilities were looted and burned, she said. The attack also disrupted Ebola response operations, leaving more than 1,000 contacts lost to follow-up and three confirmed patients unaccounted for.

"We need an urgent halt in hostilities and violence," she said. "Health workers and humanitarian teams must be able to reach affected communities safely, and patients must be able to seek care without fear."

Continued violence risks reversing progress made over the past six months, she warned, adding that displacement, worsening humanitarian needs and high population mobility were making communities harder to reach and increasing the risk of further transmission, particularly along major transport routes such as the Congo River.

Despite an expanded response, Belizaire said too many patients were still dying before receiving adequate medical care.

"Too many people are still not being reached quickly enough," she said, noting that children accounted for more than a quarter of confirmed cases and about a third of deaths.

The WHO said diagnostic capacity had increased from just two laboratories to more than two dozen, capable of processing over 600 samples daily, while around 2,000 beds were available across 109 transit and treatment centres.

Research was also advancing, including clinical trials of two vaccine candidates specifically targeting the Bundibugyo Ebola virus responsible for the current outbreak.

However, Belizaire stressed that medical capacity alone would not be sufficient without timely access to treatment, effective contact tracing and greater community trust.

"We have the tools and the expertise, but they cannot stop transmission if people cannot access them or do not trust the response," she said. "Six months into this outbreak, important progress has been made, but the continuing loss of life and spread to new areas show that much more needs to be done."

–IANS

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Source: IANS