WHO to hold emergency meeting over Congo Ebola outbreak that’s seen 33 cases in past week
The committee of experts may make recommendations to manage the outbreak, which was declared on Aug. 1 and has worsened, with a risk of the virus spreading from northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda and Rwanda.
Congo’s health ministry said on Monday that in the past week alone 33 people were confirmed with Ebola virus and 24 of them died.
The ministry said the latest cases were confirmed between Oct. 8 and 14. In total, more than 200 suspected cases of the deadly hemorrhagic fever have been reported in this outbreak, all but a couple of dozen of them confirmed, while some 130 people have died since July.
globalnews.ca/news/4552042/who-congo-ebola-meeting/
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was forced to withdraw its Ebola experts from an outbreak zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo several weeks ago amid heightened security concerns, a decision that is fueling worry over the impact on efforts to contain the epidemic, according to U.S. officials and public health experts familiar with the matter.
The Ebola experts — among the most experienced on the planet — and other U.S. government employees have been told by the State Department that they cannot travel to eastern DRC to help with the on-the-ground response.
As a result, Dr. Pierre Rollin — a fixture of Ebola responses for decades — has been consigned to the capital, Kinshasa, more than 1,000 miles away, where he is advising the ministry of health. Other CDC staffers are helping DRC’s eastern neighbors beef up their health security operations and prepare in other ways in case Ebola spreads across DRC’s borders. Some have been detailed to the World Health Organization’s Geneva headquarters.
www.statnews.com/2018/10/14/cdc-withdrew-ebola-experts-outbreak-zone/
Interestingly enough, the Ebola plane has been visiting the following airports in recent days. Possibly assisting US HCW evacuating the zone, or worse evacuating sick HCW. It is interesting though as the flights posted below seem to show movement from Somalia to Kenya, and back again….This over the last couple weeks…
Monday
15-Oct-2018
04:15PM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
06:51PM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
GLF3
2h 36m
Monday
15-Oct-2018
06:59AM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
08:25AM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
GLF3
1h 26m
Wednesday
10-Oct-2018
03:40PM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
06:05PM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
GLF3
2h 25m
Tuesday
09-Oct-2018
03:36PM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
06:03PM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
GLF3
2h 27m
Tuesday
09-Oct-2018
07:27AM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
08:50AM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
GLF3
1h 23m
Friday
05-Oct-2018
03:58PM EAT
Mogadishu – MGQ
06:31PM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
GLF3
2h 33m
Tuesday
02-Oct-2018
First seen at 04:37PM EET
near Alexandria, Egypt
10:37PM EAT
Jomo Kenyatta Int’l – NBO
GLF3
5h 00m
flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA
WHO convenes emergency meeting on Congo’s Ebola outbreak
JOHANNESBURG – The World Health Organization says it is convening a meeting on Wednesday to determine whether Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
www.miamiherald.com/news/article220063915.html
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has convened “an emergency committee” on the current outbreak in DRC’s violence-torn North Kivu region, which has killed 135 people since August, the UN health agency said in a statement.
“The committee will meet on October 17 in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” the statement said.
In the WHO’s parlance, “a public health emergency of international concern” is an “extraordinary event” in which a disease may spread across borders and requires a vigorous international response.
news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/10/16/18/who-considering-global-health-emergency-over-drc-ebola-outbreak
What many do not understand is that this is the first outbreak in an active war zone since we discovered the virus in 1976. This makes a huge difference in regional and international spread.
We have refugee camps with poor monitoring, a population who is highly suspicious of those working to stop the VIRUS, and finally people fleeing the area as fast as they can. Spreading the disease over large geographic areas. Many of which are densely populated and lack quality medical care and surveillance.
People are scared for many reasons, and will do what they need to to get help….
This has all the variables to spread much further and wider than the 2014-15 outbreak ever could. People’s homes are destroyed, no where to go…HOW have evacuated the areas. All bad news unfortunately.
The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is at risk of spiralling out of control, as health workers try to contend with both armed insurgents and hostile locals.
The latest World Health Organization figures, released this morning in Geneva, tally 200 cases and 125 deaths since this outbreak in north-eastern DRC began Aug. 1. That was just a week after the previous cluster of infections in the western part of the country had finally been declared vanquished.
The most pressing worry is that the rate of new, confirmed and suspected cases has more than doubled over the past month. It’s a clear indication that efforts to contain the spread of the virus are failing, particularly in the city of Beni, the epicentre of the new outbreak.
www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-ebola-congo-kanye-swift-cannabis-1.4855193
Earlier this month, three volunteer members of a hazmat-suited Red Cross “safe and dignified” burial team were attacked by an angry crowd in the city of Butembo as they tried to dispose of a body. Two of the relief workers were seriously wounded. In September, another Red Cross burial volunteer was injured when her vehicle was showered with stones.
The WHO says that such “community refusals” have happened on at least 32 occasions since the beginning of the outbreak, including the seizure of a body by an angry mob earlier this week. All of which poses a significant problem, since Ebola is often spread from the dead to the living.
h/t Aya house ca