The DRC\u2019s 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several deaths in Ituri, a mineral-rich northeastern province plagued by armed groups.<\/p>\n
Cases of Ebola, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have so far been found in five DRC provinces, as well as in neighbouring Uganda.<\/p>\n
But more than 90% of cases are still being detected in Ituri, Ihekweazu said.<\/p>\n
Just back from a week-long trip to the region, the doctor said the crisis remained \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d.<\/p>\n
The outbreak, which is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, \u201ccontinues to outpace the response efforts by the national authorities, international partners, including WHO, and the communities most affected\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps the most alarming finding is that many newly reported cases are individuals who died in their communities, without ever reaching a health facility and receiving care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ihekweazu nonetheless said he was encouraged to see a ramping up of the response.<\/p>\n
\u201cTreatment capacity now exceeds 700 beds and continues to increase each week; laboratory capacity has expanded dramatically … and contact follow-up rates are approaching 80 per cent,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
He noted that \u201cover the last few days, we\u2019ve seen some of the highest numbers of new infections in a single day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few days ago, we saw over 80 cases confirmed in a single day,\u201d he said, adding, though, that this is actually \u201cgood news\u201d, as it shows that fewer cases are escaping detection. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a sign of a maturing response\u201d.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DRC\u2019s 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several deaths in Ituri, a mineral-rich northeastern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5195,41216,8425,124,6659,19067,23268,1601,30271,3011,134,111,139,69,5908,4989,17976,23269,5659,312,7809,131,1361,14005,377],"class_list":["post-526270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-be","tag-bigger","tag-congo","tag-could","tag-deadly","tag-democratic","tag-ebola","tag-expert","tag-figures","tag-four","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-official","tag-organisation","tag-outbreak","tag-republic","tag-say","tag-says","tag-suggest","tag-than","tag-that","tag-times","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}