Experts speak out on DRC’s Ebola response hurdles

Kinshasa, DRC | URN | Health experts responding to the ongoing Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have revealed that despite the high number of people who continue to get confirmed positive for virus, they are still getting only half of the people they are supposed to reach.

As of Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show the country had confirmed a total of 625 deaths from the virus but officials say these numbers tell only part of the story as they continue facing serious challenges of access to data.

Speaking during a meeting attended by Ugandan authorities who are equally offering care in DRC, Dr Marie Roseline Belizaire, the Regional Emergency Director for the WHO African Region said that some of the partners are not offering information in a timely manner and they have had to keep pushing and sending multiple requests for data.

This coupled with the fact that some donors are not honoring their promises for final support, is delaying interventions such as contact tracing, laboratory testing and others meant to halt further transmission of the deadly virus.

So far, of the 1792 total cases confirmed, medics have managed to save fewer than 300, with a case fatality rate of about 35 percent.

Dr Atek Kagirita, the Incident Commander for Public Health Emergencies in Uganda who is one of the top officials supervising Ugandan health workers recently deployed in DRC after the launch of treatment and laboratory facilities in the country in June, says the number of people saved in such an outbreak is highly dependent on coordination efforts and how quickly they respond when an outbreak is declared.

At the beginning of this response, Kagirita says they were working with very limited information, a reason as to why Uganda quickly instituted extreme measures of closing the border, leaving it exclusively for us by essential workers.

In Uganda, Kagirita reports that the outbreak is largely defeated with only one person currently undergoing treatment at the 86-bed capacity isolation facility in Kampala. Uganda confirmed the outbreak on the same day as DRC but only two cases have died of the total 20 confirmed representing a case fatality of ten percent.

Kagirita says the biggest challenge for them now is the risk presented by truck drivers who are still plying the DRC route but also continuing to other countries in the region.

“Our electronic tracking system deployed in the previous outbreaks has since been run down. The spillover of other cases to Uganda is still possible as long as we have our truck drivers in Congo and the cases in Congo still high”, he said.

Meanwhile of the twenty cases confirmed in Uganda, fifteen were imported from Congo by people who flew in to seek care at different private health facilities.