Irish medic warns Ebola situation is evolving rapidly
Officials are also facing rising concern in the DRC over the spread of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.
Mounting tensions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are likely to drive Ebola deeper into the country, an Irish doctor working with Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) has warned.
The warning followed an attack yesterday on an Ebola treatment centre in eastern Congo, which was set ablaze by people angered after they were stopped from recovering the body of a local man.
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About 600 suspected Ebola cases have been recorded in the DRC, along with more than 140 deaths, figures that led the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern.
Officials are also facing rising concern in the DRC over the spread of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.
MSF is active on the ground in the regions.
Dr Eve Robinson, an epidemiologist working with MSF, is currently in Goma, near the DRC’s border with Rwanda.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, she said the outbreak began several weeks ago in Ituri, in the north east of the country, and that since then the “situation has evolved rapidly”.
Read more:What do we know about the Ebola outbreak in the Congo and Uganda?
She said the current estimated number of suspected cases and deaths is likely an “underestimate of the true situation”.
Dr Robinson said MSF has already established a treatment centre in the hardest-hit area and that it is now operating at full capacity.
She said conditions in Ituri are extremely challenging, with clusters of suspected and confirmed cases beginning to move into neighbouring provinces.
“I’m very concerned and MSF is very concerned. Where I am here in Goma, although we have only had one case, it feels like the calm before the storm,” she said, adding that by this time next week, she thinks it will be a very different situation.
She said there are many trade routes linking Ituri with North Kivu, the province where she is based.
“We are expecting this outbreak to spread further,” she said.
Dr Robinson said there are several pillars in managing an Ebola outbreak, but that community engagement is among the most important.
She said fear and tension are inevitable in any Ebola outbreak.
“Especially in this region, where there is already a lot of active conflicts, so tensions are already high. I think this is going to be further exacerbated with this disease outbreak.
“So one of the really important pillars is working with the communities,” she said.
“You don’t control an Ebola outbreak in the treatment centres, although they are really important. You control it by working in and with the communities.”
She said that means health promotion efforts, explaining the disease and its symptoms, and making clear why isolation procedures matter, while stressing that safe and dignified burials are “absolutely vital to control the outbreak”.
Dr Robinson said it could be several months before a vaccine is developed for this strain of Ebola.
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US Ebola patient in Berlin hospital not critically ill, family tests negative
A US citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not critically ill, and his wife and four children have tested negative, according to the Berlin hospital treating the family.
“Because the course of the illness can change, he remains under close observation and is receiving treatment,” Charite university hospital said in a statement. “He is being cared for in the high-security area of the specialised isolation unit.”
The patient’s wife and four children “are currently asymptomatic and quarantined in a separate part of the unit – an initial PCR test detected no Ebola virus infection.”
The patient, identified by the Serge Christian mission organization as medical missionary Dr Peter Stafford, contracted Ebola while treating patients in the DRC, where he had been living with his family.
The White House said Dr Stafford and his family had been brought to Germany because it is 12 hours closer to the DRC than the United States.
Charite said in its statement that the patient room had been made as child-friendly as possible, adding that the children were able to see their father “through a glass partition, and family members can communicate via an intercom.”
Additional reporting Reuters
