The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is working with nine countries that neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo to prevent the spread of an Ebola outbreak that’s been tied to dozens of deaths.
Officials said the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo are in the most danger, because they sit along major river routes that emanate from the epicenter of the outbreak in the northwestern Equateur Province.
Beyond team-building and planning sessions, government officials are working with the Republic of Congo to get an active market on their side of the Congo River “to stop functioning,” Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s director for Africa, told the World Health Assembly.
The next level of concern is for countries that border the DRC but don’t have direct links to the epicenter of the outbreak: Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
Officials are the least concerned about Uganda, which has a proven track record of responding quickly to infectious diseases.
Ebola is a serious illness that is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads from human to human through the bodily fluids of people who exhibit symptoms.
Global responders are working around the clock to prevent the spread of the virus in the DRC, saying they will not allow a repeat of the West African outbreak that killed more than 11,000 in 2013-2016.
All told, DRC officials have reported 58 cases — 28 confirmed, 21 probable ones and nine suspected.
The epidemic is tied to 27 deaths, or a fatality rate of nearly 47 percent if all types of cases are included.
WHO officials said various factors make the response challenging.
Many of the cases are in a remote area, meaning it’s difficult to transport trial vaccines that must be kept at minus-60 to minus-80 degrees Celsius.
Several cases were discovered in Mbandaka, a major city that sits along the Congo River, raising the risk of transmission along trade routes.
Five health care workers have been affected, and multiple sources of transmission have been documented — a funeral in Bikoro, a visitor health care facility in Iboko and a church ceremony in the region.
“So these are three separate chains of transmission we’re following, and each one has the potential to expand if not controlled,” said Dr. Peter Salama, WHO’s emergencies chief.
From the U.S., seven staff members from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have arrived in the DRC or are in the process of deploying through the WHO’s global outbreak response network.
The CDC is also sending a vaccine specialist and a public health advisor to the capital city of Kinshasa to help two staffers who are already deployed to a CDC office the agency maintains with DRC officials.
Dr. Salama thanked countries that have assisted the effort, saying they are on the “epidemiological knife’s edge” of the response.
“We’re really just at the beginning,” Dr. Salama said. “The next few weeks will really tell if this outbreak is going to expand to urban areas or if we’re going to be able to keep it under control.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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