HE deadly Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo has yet to peak and could take a year to contain, the Red Cross warned Tuesday, amid mounting warnings of dangerous gaps in the response. Since the outbreak was declared on 15 May, 808 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 192 deaths, according to the latest World Health Organization figures. While efforts to rein in the outbreak are scaling up, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of warnings over the swelling scale of the crisis. “The peak is, I think, not beyond us, but in front of us,” Bruno Michon, the IFRC’s operations manager for the outbreak, told reporters in Geneva.
“We are afraid that this could last one year” before the epidemic is over, he said, speaking from Bunia, capital of the DRC’s northeastern Ituri province, which is the outbreak’s epicentre. The response to the epidemic, the 17th to hit the vast central African country, has faced towering challenges.
No approved vaccines or treatments exist for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus responsible for the current outbreak. The three affected provinces in the northeastern DRC — Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu — have long been gripped by conflict and mass displacement, complicating the response.
AFP
#TheGlobalNewLightOfMyanmar