The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have recorded 894 confirmed cases and 204 deaths from Ebola.
Speaking during a webinar on Thursday, Wessam Mankoula,
acting head of the emergency preparedness and response division of the centre,
said 74 recoveries were reported in the first month since the declaration on
May 15.
Mankoula added that Uganda’s situation remains unchanged,
with 19 cases, two deaths for a 10.5 percent case fatality rate, seven
recoveries, and 100 percent contact listing, all confined to one health zone in
Kampala.
He said the DRC was driving the outbreak, with Ituri
Province as the epicentre, reporting 91 confirmed cases and accounting for 78
percent of all deaths recorded in the country.
“North Kivu is the most worrisome area due to insecurity
limiting responder access, resulting in a high case fatality rate and the
lowest contact tracing coverage among the three affected provinces,” Mankoula
said.
“The outbreak is spreading rapidly, with 32 health zones now
affected across the DRC and Uganda, up from three health zones in week one to
11 on May 22, 14 in week three, and 32 by week four.
“This ranks as the third-largest Ebola outbreak by total
cases and deaths so far, behind only West Africa 2014 and the 2018–2019 DRC
outbreak, and fourth or fifth in caseload during the first four weeks compared
to the top 20 outbreaks historically.”
The acting head said cases increased by 38 percent from last
week to this week, yet the geographic spread remains within the same three
provinces where the outbreak began, noting that contact tracing remains
critically low.
“For more than 800 confirmed cases, an estimated 17,000 to
35,000 contacts should be listed and monitored daily, but only more than 6,000
are listed, about 20 percent of the expected number,” Mankoula stated.
“Of those 6,000 listed contacts, only around 4,000 are
actively followed, less than 15 percent of the contacts that should be
monitored to detect new cases early.
“Without licensed vaccines or therapeutics for the Sudan
strain, controlling the outbreak depends entirely on case identification,
contact listing, and daily monitoring by community health workers.
“Safe and dignified burial capacity is severely lacking:
only seven of the 49 required teams are deployed, seven of the 98 needed
vehicles are available, and 84 of the 540 required personnel are on the
ground.”
He explained that the centre declared a public health
emergency of continental security on May 18, three days after the outbreak was
confirmed.
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