KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization has arrived in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, to support efforts against an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus, as medical personnel struggle with a lack of equipment, a distrustful population and armed groups in a volatile region.
“To come here is to really show to the community that they’re not alone," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the airport late Thursday.
“Pushing orders from my comfortable office in Geneva is easy, but I’m asking my colleagues to work with the community and I am asking communities to protect themselves,” he added. “That thing can be stopped,” he said, referring to the outbreak.
Describing it as a “very complex outbreak”, Tedros said challenges like the high number of people displaced by armed conflict in the region and food insecurity are complicating the containment of the outbreak.
The outbreak has also been particularly difficult to contain because the disease likely spread for weeks before it was first identified in mid-May.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has said three of its volunteers in Ituri died after they were believed to have contracted Ebola doing unrelated health work on March 27 — more than a month before the first suspected death cited by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Outbreak spreading faster than response
Meanwhile, the outbreak continues to spread faster than the response, despite the response becoming more organized and the arrival of more equipment.
There had been 1,077 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths recorded as of Tuesday, according to Congo’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center, which includes WHO.
Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri province, the heart of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, on Thursday, with more batches planned over the next eight days. The United States announced the same day $80 million in additional aid, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.
An AP reporter in Bunia, the provincial capital, said the response has improved since the new arrivals of aid earlier this week.
At Rwampara Hospital, where a treatment center has been established, the response looks far more organized than in previous days, with more staff deployed, stronger prevention measures and teams in protective gear visible across units — though patients continue to arrive around the clock. The same progress was noted at Bunia General Hospital, where new medical kits, support personnel and emergency funding appear to be reinvigorating operations.
Health workers with scant supplies had been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine. In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected patients.
Only one patient has so far recovered from the disease, officials say. There are no specific treatments for it
“We are currently exploring the use of more and more drugs and compounds that can help save even more lives, because, as I’ve mentioned, this disease initially presents just like any other infectious disease we’re familiar with: dizziness, headache, fever, vomiting and diarrhea,” Congo’s Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters Thursday night.
Distrust, travel bans could complicate response
Dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for dealing with the bodies of victims, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.
Tucked in the northeastern part of Congo close to the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been reeling from attacks by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias. In early May, the ADF killed at least 40 people and burned several homes in Ituri.
The illness also has been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.
After Uganda closed its border with Congo, the WHO chief said Thursday he discourages countries from imposing travel bans. “There are ways to manage workers and to manage cases without having a strong, restricted travel ban and we don’t encourage that as WHO,” Tedros said.
The Trump administration last week announced a temporary ban on the entry of people without U.S. passports who have visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days. It said Wednesday it plans to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the U.S.
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Kabumba reported from Bunia, Congo, and Banchereau from Dakar, Senegal.
