DRC Ebola cases down – but the outbreak isn’t over
The rate of new cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has dropped from an April high of 128 per week to 15, but the outbreak is persistent and emergency status remains in place
While WHO stated that it still considers the outbreak to be a public health emergency, the organisation’s Director of Emergency Response Dr Michael Ryan did offer some tentative optimism, saying that: “We believe we are on what could be a bumpy road to zero new infections.” Indeed, the fact that new case rates have dropped to a recent low of 15 over the course of a week has been called ‘encouraging’.
However, cases do keep popping up around the DRC, a problem amplified by the fact that the locations in which they are appearing are remote and frequently dangerous, with violence and robberies a common occurrence. There is also little or no public awareness of Ebola in these lawless mining regions, making health workers’ lives significantly more difficulty.
WHO’s most recent figures show that the fatality rate is still high, sitting at 67 per cent, even in the face of the rolling out of two treatments that have been shown to be very effective. The efficacy of these treatments, though, hinges on patients being given transfusions very rapidly after the onset of infection.
Interestingly, at least in terms of numbers of deaths, Ebola is not currently the most dangerous biological phenomenon in the DRC; since January, over 4,000 people have died from measles infections.
At the time of writing, there have been 3,227 cases of Ebola – either confirmed or probable – since the outbreak began in August last year, and 2,154 deaths.