The World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out on Friday that the epidemic of the infectious disease Ebola is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), despite intensified efforts to fight this virus, which has already claimed more than 230 deaths in the DRC. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“The epidemic remains serious,” said Marie-Roseline Belizairová, WHO’s head of emergencies for Africa, according to whom the epidemic is spreading rapidly. “Still, I’ve seen a reaction that’s getting stronger every day,” she stated.
Belizair claims that the epidemic is developing so quickly that the response can hardly keep up with the rate of spread of the virus. The number of beds for Ebola patients has increased from zero to more than 500. She also said that the intervention teams are currently reviewing almost 400 reports and are able to perform more than 2,000 tests per day.
In addition, contact tracing of known Ebola cases has been intensified, with 75 percent of all contacts now being contacted. According to the WHO, 95 percent of contacts are needed to control the epidemic.
Since the beginning of the declaration of the epidemic on May 15, confirmed 896 cases of Ebola in the DRC, including 232 deaths. The latest data from the WHO shows that 21 new cases have been reported in the past 24 hours.
The outbreak is in the conflict-torn Ituri province, where 90 percent of all Ebola cases in the DRC have been recorded. The epidemic also spread to the provinces of South and North Kivu, but also from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighboring Uganda, where they reported 19 cases, including two deaths.
Ten infected persons have recovered. However, the Ugandan authorities have not registered any new cases for 12 days, AFP recalled. The current Ebola epidemic is caused by a variant of the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is still no approved vaccine or treatment.
