The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reached the highest number of confirmed cases in the first month of any Ebola outbreak in Africa, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. As of Monday, over 1,000 cases and 267 deaths have been confirmed from the current outbreak of the Bundibugyo ebolavirus.
The WHO formally confirmed the outbreak on May 15, but experts believe the virus had been circulating for weeks or months prior. Abdirahman Mahamud of the WHO stated that the response needs to expand to keep pace with the growing outbreak, and that this is beginning to happen.
Cases have now been confirmed in at least three crowded displacement camps in war-torn eastern Congo. Abdoulaye Wone of the International Organization for Migration reported 25 cases and 14 deaths at the camps.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been more than 20 Ebola outbreaks across Africa since the 1970s. The deadliest were in West Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia), killing 11,000 people between 2014 and 2016, and another in Congo starting in 2018 with 2,229 recorded deaths.
Meanwhile, Kenya's Health Minister Aden Duale assured a Kenyan court on Tuesday that he had ordered an immediate halt to the construction of a US-backed Ebola quarantine facility at an air base. Duale had been found in contempt of court for failing to observe previous orders to suspend construction pending judicial evaluation.
The tented facility in the central town of Nanyuki was intended to serve as a treatment center for US nationals should they contract Ebola amid the outbreak in the DRC. The plans, first announced in May, led to sometimes violent protests, with three people killed. Justice Patricia Nyaundi Mande discharged Duale without punishment but warned him against further disobedience.
Duale stated during the sentencing hearing: "I have directed the immediate and complete cessation of any intended construction, site preparation, or related activities concerning the Laikipia Air Base facility." The facility was to have about 50 isolation beds and be managed by US medical staff. Kenya has never recorded an Ebola case, and there was public concern about bringing patients onto its territory.
Rights groups also successfully petitioned the court, saying the facility was being constructed secretly and without consultations. The government initially disregarded orders to pause construction. Flight tracking data, satellite imagery, and US officials speaking on condition of anonymity pointed to continued preparations at the site despite the initial court order.
The sole US citizen to have contracted Ebola so far in the current outbreak — a doctor working as a medical missionary in eastern DRC — was flown to Germany for treatment at a specialist facility in Berlin.
Source: www.dw.com