The epidemic’s consequences are devastating; the current
Ebola epidemic began in August last year in eastern Congo and has already
infected at least 2,062 people, killing 1,390 of them, a tragedy whose repercussions go well beyond the
direct death toll. In a continent where malaria alone takes half a million
lives, the impact of Ebola on the health systems and the social and economic
stability of the region suggests that the crisis is far from over.
Nearly 600 people have contracted Ebola since last August in
eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, making the ongoing outbreak the
second largest in the 43-year history of humanity’s battle with the deadly
virus. And there is a genuine threat that this Congo health crisis—the 10th the
African nation has faced—could become essentially permanent in the war-torn
region bordering South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, making a terrible
transition from being epidemic to endemic.
The international community has learnt a bitter lesson as a
result of the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The WHO has also recognized its
responsibility and has mandated a series of reforms and the creation of
global health emergency workforce to guarantee its rapid response to outbreaks
and emergencies worldwide.
In the affected countries ie DRC and currently Uganda, there
are still signs that public health messages aimed at preventing the spread of
the virus are not getting through to many communities, and suspicion of health
workers and of isolation centres where Ebola patients are treated remains high.
Despite having a tool kit at its disposal that is
unrivaled—including a vaccine, new diagnostics, experimental treatments, and a
strong body of knowledge regarding how to battle the hemorrhage-causing
virus—the small army of international health responders and humanitarian
workers in Congo is playing whack-a-mole against a microbe that keeps popping
up unexpectedly and proving impossible to control. This is not because of any
special attributes of the classic strain of Ebola—the same genetic strain that
has been successfully tackled many times before—but because of humans and their
behaviors in a quarter-century-old war zone.
Ever since the second-largest Ebola outbreak began
raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo in August, health authorities have
feared that the virus might one day spill over DRC’s porous borders. On Tuesday
this week; the World Health Organization confirmed the first cases of
Ebola spreading from DRC to neighboring Uganda. A 5-year-old Congolese child
traveled across the border with his family on June 9 and then sought medical
care in Uganda. The boy died overnight. His 50-year-old grandmother was
also diagnosed with the virus, and died a day later. Now the boy’s 3-year-old
brother is being treated for the virus near the border.
According to the WHO, Uganda has been preparing for
this moment. Health authorities there have vaccinated nearly 4,700 health
workers in 165 health facilities (including the one where the deceased child
was cared for). They’ve also set up Ebola treatment units to isolate and care
for the sick.
But inadequate and short-term funding is a major barrier.
Financing just the medical response without simultaneously supporting community
engagement undermines the efficacy of the overall response, as does funding
that just focuses on the emergency at hand.
Community engagement is going to be critical to curbing the
spread of Ebola and controlling this epidemic, building out a comprehensive
response to the outbreak is also our best shot at containing this epidemic,
preventing future recurrences, and alleviating the suffering of the population
of North Kivu who is affected by a continuing armed crisis.
Creating a safety zone around the Ebola outbreaks could
allow healthcare professionals to carry out their work in safety and may
inspire international assistance to flow into the area where it is so badly
needed. While mission creep within peacekeeping operations is rightly subject
to considerable criticism, if the situation in the DRC worsens, it may be the
only option.
I just hope right now that the security system doesn’t
deteriorate any further, which might trigger a necessary pullout of the field,
and nobody wants that. Because at this point, if we have to pull significant
resources back out of the field, this virus just runs out of control.
For too long, the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC has
been ignored. A lack of infrastructure, weak governance, and stunted economy
has only intensified the suffering of the Congolese. The international
community must urgently apply the hard-won lessons from previous outbreaks of
Ebola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the country’s deadliest
outbreak rages across its conflict-hit eastern provinces.
Let’s not undermine this by failing to provide adequate
support for the worst Ebola epidemic to strike the country. We should be
concerned that what today still appears to some as a health emergency hides
much more insidious threats, which must be understood and addressed by the
international community, before it’s too late. #EbolaOutBreak #Prevention #GlobalFight #ItsNow-orNever #EbolaCrisis #GlobalCrisis
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