The World Health Organization sounded the alarm Tuesday over an Ebola outbreak in a war-torn part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying it’s already more deadly than the headline-grabbing outbreak that just ended and is compounded by inaccessible “red zones.”
While Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk of global transmission remains low, he stressed he feels “more worried” about situation after touring the northeastern North Kivu province — a departure from upbeat messages WHO officials had struck in stamping out a previous DRC brush with the deadly virus.
The new outbreak has already been linked to 41 deaths, compared to 33 in the previous outbreak in northwestern Equateur Province, which petered out in July, Dr. Ghebreyesus told reporters in Switzerland.
Area residents are migratory, with 1 million displaced persons moving from town to town and crisscrossing the border with Uganda and Rwanda, prompting fears of the virus could spread. The circumstances are compounded by active fighting in the mineral-rich region that has effectively shut out aid and given the virus a sanctuary to fester.
“That environment is really conducive for Ebola to transmit freely, because in that area there are places called red zones, inaccessible areas,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said. “We will have difficulty accessing those areas, and people from those areas will have difficulty moving from the areas they’re into a place where they can get the support they need.”
There have been 120 violent incidents in the region this year. While Dr. Ghrebreyesus stayed overnight in Beni, an affected town, violent clashes unfolded less than 10 miles away, leaving four civilians dead.
The doctor said he pleaded with hostile militias in the area to cooperate with the aid effort, telling them it’s in their own interest to stop the disease from spreading. “The virus is dangerous to all,” he said. “It doesn’t choose between this group or that group.”
Making matters worse, Dr. Ghebreyesus said seven health care workers in Mangina — not far from Beni — have been infected by Ebola, meaning responders have had to scramble for replacements.
Despite the growing concern, WHO officials still see the outbreak as a regional issue. The organization has not yet declared the crisis a public health emergency of international concern — a designation that signals a high risk of global spread. But Dr. Ghebreyesus said officials are “following the changes around the clock, 24-7.”
Ebola is a serious, often fatal illness that is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads from human to human through the bodily fluids of people who exhibit symptoms. Infected persons remain highly contagious right after death.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has trained nearly 50 volunteers on safe burials in Beni and Mangina. It is also teaching locals how to maintain better water and sanitation systems, particularly in prisons, and supporting hospitals to reduce the spread of infection.
The WHO, meanwhile, is ramping up personnel on the ground, giving trial vaccines to health workers and working with community and religious leaders to track down contacts of infected persons. It’s also road-testing a novel drug for Ebola, known as mAb114 therapy, that consists of an antibody isolated from a human survivor of a 1995 outbreak in the DRC.
An existing U.N. mission in the region, known as MONUSCO, has supplied air support and 10 vehicles, with 30 more vehicles scheduled to be added to the effort. Officials are also checking for Ebola cases at the Ugandan border, and the WHO expects more doses of the trial vaccine, supplied by Merck, to arrive in Beni and Mangina imminently.
“We are on an epidemiological precipice,” Peter Salama, the WHO’s emergencies director, tweeted after a visit to the region. “We have a critical, time-limited window of opportunity to prevent the DRC Ebola outbreak from taking hold in areas that are much more difficult to access because of insecurity. There is not a minute to lose.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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