Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries have surpassed 11,000, making the current outbreak the second-largest in the history of the disease. The virus has spread to parts of eastern, central and western Africa, the UN said, as quoted by Reuters and Ukrinform.
“As the number of confirmed cases has now exceeded 11,000, the outbreak is the second-worst in the history of Ebola and has spread to parts of eastern, central and western Africa,” the UN statement said.
Security concerns hamper the work of health teams
Six months after the outbreak began, the UN is reporting progress in the response to the virus. In some areas that were previously disease hotspots, the number of new cases is declining. At the same time, Ebola continues to spread to more remote and dangerous areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, said that the deteriorating security situation remained the biggest obstacle to combating the epidemic. The unstable situation is making it difficult to access the affected areas and for teams to trace cases and contacts of infected people.
There is no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus
The outbreak was detected in mid-May and was caused by a rare type of virus known as Bundibugyo. There are no approved treatments or vaccines for it, further complicating the response by health authorities.
The French medical organisation “Doctors Without Borders” gave a more pessimistic assessment of the prospects for containing the spread. According to the organisation, supplies of medicines are insufficient and the virus is spreading uncontrollably.
Julien Harneis, the UN’s special coordinator for the fight against Ebola, also acknowledged the complexity of the situation. He said that controlling the outbreak was difficult because of the vast territory it had affected.
More than 10,000 cases recorded in Congo alone
By the end of October, 10,060 cases of Ebola had been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while 4,887 people had died. The total for the Congo and the other affected African countries has now exceeded 11,000 confirmed cases.
The data show that although the number of new infections is declining in some of the initial hotspots, the disease continues to reach areas where access for health teams is more difficult and security has deteriorated.
Sources: ukrinform.ua, wtaq.com