Congo Ebola response strained a month after WHO declares international emergency

Health workers battling an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo lack the personnel to identify suspected cases, the ambulances to transport them and even the construction materials to build isolation wards, officials and aid workers told Reuters.

A month after the World Health Organization declared an international emergency, the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain has grown to more than 800 confirmed cases, with warnings mounting that it could become the worst on record — surpassing the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people.

Health teams are so stretched that tens of thousands of contacts of those cases remain untraced, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters, pointing to insecurity and the urban, mining-heavy setting of the outbreak as central obstacles.

"After four weeks we have an outbreak in ⁠an urban area where there is insecurity, where there is this mining and trade activity, and also where we are not reaching all the people who must be in the contact list," he said late on Tuesday.

"If we don't reach these people, we cannot say that we can win with this outbreak."


Reuters