The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to get worse in the coming days and week despite the swift dispatch of an experimental vaccine to the affected area, according to a top official at the World Health Organization.
About 52 people have been infected and death estimates have climbed to 39 as of Aug. 11. An additional 48 suspected cases are under investigation. Peter Salama, WHO’s deputy director, said on Twitter that the outbreak “will get worse before it gets better.”
Healthcare workers began using an experimental vaccine on patients in the region on Wednesday, but they face difficult circumstances as they try to reach those who may have been infected. The latest outbreak is in North Kivu province, a war-torn region that borders Uganda and Rwanda. Roughly 1 million people who live in the area have been displaced and are still on the move, which makes it difficult for medics to vaccinate people and then monitor them for three weeks, an effective strategy they took only weeks earlier in another region of the Congo.
“We are on an epidemiological precipice,” Salama wrote on Twitter. “We have a critical, time-limited window of opportunity to prevent the … outbreak from taking hold in areas that are much more difficult to access because of insecurity. There is not a minute to lose.”
Health worker infections are a major risk for #Ebola outbreak amplification. Unfortunately, given exposures, we expect #DRC outbreak to get worse before it gets better. Given complexities, we ask all partners to support government-led response with their most experienced staff. pic.twitter.com/jAEqlaiH4T
— Peter Salama (@PeteSalama) August 13, 2018
Ebola spreads through direct contact with people who are infected, even if a body is handled improperly during burial. The virus causes body aches, bleeding, vomiting, and diarrhea. It also can be transmitted through sex and has been found in studies to remain in semen for more than two years.
Several healthcare workers became infected early during the outbreak, an outcome that Salama said was a “major risk for Ebola outbreak amplification.”
