Ebola in the DR Congo: The outbreak is expanding

ap | According to the World Health Organization, there is a lack of medical staff to operate treatment centers during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The situation is particularly tense in the eastern province of North Kivu, where the number of cases rose by 73 percent within three weeks, the WHO announced on Wednesday.

A single Ebola treatment center would require about 300 professionals, including nurses, hygienists, anesthesiologists and doctors, said WHO representative Anne Ancia. However, there was a lack of staff and money to pay them. “We set up Ebola treatment centers, but we don’t always have the staff to run them,” Ancia explained. “These medical staff need to be paid.”

The outbreak has spread to seven provinces. According to the latest government figures, 7,773 confirmed cases and 3,759 deaths have been registered. At the same time, between August 31 and September 20, the number of cases fell by 26 percent in Ituri, the center of the outbreak, and by 15 percent in Haut-Uele. However, the outbreak remains out of control, said WHO Regional Director Marie Roseline Belizaire.

Children under five are particularly at risk. According to the WHO, their case fatality rate is more than 60 percent, and for adults it is around 40 percent. Detecting illnesses in young children is also difficult because they often cannot describe their symptoms.

Test vaccinations against the rampant Ebola epidemic have begun in Congo. As the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in Geneva on Monday, 20,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been made available for a clinical trial in Ituri province. The aim is to gain knowledge about the effectiveness of the vaccine on the Bundibugyo variant of the virus that is currently circulating. So far, protection from Ervebo has only been proven for the Zaire variant.

The vaccine will be tested on healthcare workers who are most exposed to the virus. According to the WHO, infection with Ebola is statistically fatal in half of cases.