Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday said over 1,100 people were suspected of having contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, weeks after the World
Health Organisation (WHO) sounded an international health alert.
Jean Kaseya, the director-general of the African Union health agency, told the Financial Times that there were 263 confirmed cases in both countries as of Saturday, with 43 confirmed deaths. Earlier, the Africa CDC said there had been 246 suspected deaths from the virus.
“We must move at the speed of the epidemic,” Kaseya said, criticising Africa’s dependence on outside financial support. He called for a broader response across the continent to the virus and described the outbreak as a “serious test” for the African Union.
“This outbreak will not be the last,” he added. This came after the health ministers of the DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan recently adopted a $319-million response plan to the outbreak.
‘Deeply Alarming’ Situation
The development came two weeks after the WHO declared the outbreak in eastern DR Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world. The virus, which can cause a deadly haemorrhagic fever, has been detected in three Congolese provinces as well as in Uganda.
International health authorities believe that current figures are likely an underestimation. Medical charity organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has described the outbreak as a “deeply alarming” situation, with officials warning that the true scale of the outbreak is still unknown.
MSF deputy director Dr Alan Gonzales noted that never before had so many cases been recorded so soon after an outbreak was confirmed, adding that response efforts were struggling to keep up with the speed of transmission.
Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited DR Congo’s Ituri province, the worst-affected region on Saturday, as international concern deepened. He said the global community was supporting Congo’s response efforts but stressed that stronger coordination, funding and community engagement were urgently needed.
Brazil Patient Tests Negative For Ebola
Meanwhile, two patients who recently arrived in Brazil from African countries have been put in isolation after showing symptoms linked to Ebola, although one of them later tested negative for the virus.
A 37-year-old man who recently travelled to the DR Congo “exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case” of Ebola, according to the Sao Paulo government. The patient was diagnosed with a severe form of meningitis, and more tests were being conducted to screen for Ebola.
Another patient in Rio de Janeiro tested positive for malaria, but in neither case does the diagnosis of other diseases rule out the possibility of Ebola, as per authorities.
