WHO Raises Ebola Risk to Very High in Democratic Republic of Congo Nationally

The World Health Organization raised the risk of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to “very high” at the national level, while keeping it “low at global level,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros told reporters, “We are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level,” as the outbreak continued to spread.

Al Jazeera

Reuters reported that so far 82 cases had been confirmed in Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, 177 suspected deaths and almost 750 suspected cases.

The WHO said the situation in Uganda was stable, with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from the DRC, one of them fatal, and it deployed additional WHO personnel to the epicentre in Ituri province.

WHO chief scientist Sylvie Briand said an antiviral treatment called Obeldesivir could be used among Ebola contacts to prevent them developing the disease, while warning it “has still to be implemented under a very, very strict protocol.”

In Ituri province, authorities restricted funerals so burials must be conducted only by specialised teams and prohibited the transport of dead bodies by non-medical vehicles, while limiting public gatherings to a maximum of 50 people and suspending the local football league.

Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani said the way things were going in Ituri left residents “fearing that more cases are spreading because the majority of the cases reported across the region are still coming from Ituri,” as volunteers went door-to-door to combat misinformation.

Al Jazeera

On Thursday in Rwampara, people set fire to an Ebola treatment center after being stopped from retrieving the body of a local man, with witness and senior police officer accounts describing fear and anger growing over the outbreak.

Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi said the youths “had not understood the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim,” while field coordinator Hama Amadou said calm had been restored and aid teams were continuing their work.

The BBC reported that Tedros warned it was crucial to build trust, saying violence and insecurity in the war-ravaged region were hampering the response, after angry relatives set fire to a hospital at Rwampara General Hospital.

The WHO said the outbreak’s risk assessment remained “low” globally even as it was “very high” in the DRC, with Tedros adding that the epidemic was “much larger” than the confirmed 82 cases and seven deaths.

In Uganda, WHO said there were two confirmed cases among people who travelled from the DRC, with one death, while the WHO also said a U.S. national working in Congo had tested positive and was transferred to Germany for care.

The BBC reported that scientists at Oxford University were developing a new vaccine that could be ready for clinical trials within two to three months, while a separate experimental Bundibugyo vaccine was expected to take six to nine months for any dose to be ready for testing.

The BBC also quoted Tedros saying, “We are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level,” and described how the body of a dead Ebola victim is highly infectious and requires safe burial to stop spread.

Le Monde reported that Rwanda announced foreign nationals who traveled to the DRC or transited through Rwanda in the last thirty days would be refused entry, while Rwandan nationals and foreign residents could enter if they submitted to quarantine measures.