The number of suspected deaths in the epidemic that is ravaging several African countries now reaches 220 people, as reported today by the director general of the World Health Organization, Reuters reports. The delay in detecting new cases means that health workers “are behind the outbreak,” he has warned.
“We are urgently expanding operations, but right now the epidemic is overtaking us,” Tedros said, adding that countries bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — the epicenter of the outbreak — should take immediate action.
Tedros said he will travel to the DRC this Tuesday and address the rapidly evolving outbreak is complicated because the Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu are highly insecure areas; and also approved for the Bundibugyo virus.
This Monday, Uganda reported two new Ebola infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to seven.
Tedros said he will travel to the DRC this Tuesday and address the rapidly evolving outbreak is complicated because the Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu are highly insecure areas; and there are also no approved vaccines for
The United Nations health arm had estimated more than 900 cases suspected of being infected with the Bundibugyo variant, responsible for the current outbreak, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from where it has spread to other neighboring countries. Of all these cases, 101 have been confirmed with laboratory tests, reports Efe.
The director general of the WHO highlighted the difficulties in addressing the outbreak in the province of Ituri, the epicenter of the crisis, where one in four people needs humanitarian assistance and one in five is internally displaced. “Violence is forcing people to flee, including health and humanitarian workers, hindering efforts to expand contact tracing and identify infections early enough to provide support,” he stressed. The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has put the “probable deaths” at 204 since the declaration of the epidemic on May 15.
Suspects in Italy
Two Italian aid workers with symptoms that could indicate infection with the Ebola virus were admitted this Monday to the Sacco Hospital in Milan, after returning from Uganda, where they spent three months, in a region bordering the DRC, where an outbreak of this disease has been recorded.
The two aid workers are a 31-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, residents of two towns in the Como area, Lurate Caccivio and Bulgarograsso. They arrived at Malpensa airport on Sunday on a flight from Addis Ababa, and during the night they presented symptoms that raised the alarm. At three in the afternoon, the regional councilor of Social Welfare of Lombardy, Guido Bertolaso, gave a press conference forced by the leak of the news and to convey calm.
Bertolaso has clarified that the woman has presented worrying symptoms, but that they may be compatible with a form of malaria, since her daughter was infected with the disease in the previous days. He has suffered high fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and neurological symptoms. The man suffers from a mild fever and intestinal problems, which can also be due to other types of tropical diseases. Their relatives have been ordered to remain isolated in their homes. In the next few hours it will become clear if any of them test positive for the Ebola virus. If so, they would be transferred to the Italian reference hospital for these cases, the Spallanzani in Rome.
