The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been spreading there for a year, and American federal officials reported Thursday that the deadly virus is showing no sign of abating.
“It appears the outbreak continues at the same pace, so we don’t see evidence of slowing,” Dr. Henry Walke, who is leading the response for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a call with reporters. “We remain concerned and continue to try to have an impact on the response.”
The outbreak has been difficult to control. As of July 30, at least 2,698 people had been infected, and 1,813 among them have died. To fight the illness, medical workers find people who are infected, isolate them, and then work to check in on all the people they may have come in contact with.
Healthcare workers have been using an experimental vaccine to inoculate more than 171,000 people, and it appears to be working, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
But outbreaks of violence have made it hard to address the illness. And people living in the Congo have been skeptical not just of the vaccine but about following medical advice, or going to see healthcare workers when they fall ill. The mistrust has hampered efforts, Walke said.
The United States has 15 staff in the Congo, and hopes to double that number in the next month. The CDC also has more than 200 people working to assist at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta, as well a handful of staff in Uganda, South Sudan, and Rwanda. Officials wish to send more staff, but are concerned about their safety, Walke said.
The outbreak is not yet as large as it was from 2014 to 2016, when Ebola killed more than 11,300 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, and also reached the U.S. During that outbreak, the U.S. had hundreds of staff on the ground.
Ebola is most often spread through direct contact with people who are infected, causing 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.
People can be infected with Ebola for up to 21 days without showing symptoms, and while they aren’t contagious until their symptoms arise, they are still contagious after they die. Parts of the Congo have been hard hit because families care for each other at home, and have burial rituals that involve washing a dead body.
Aug. 1 marks one year since the Ebola outbreak began. It wasn’t until two weeks ago that the World Health Organization declared the outbreak an “International Emergency of Public Health Concern.” The designation means that Ebola has a risk of spreading to other countries.
But despite the declaration, the risk of Ebola coming to the U.S. remains low, Walke said, though it is risky in countries neighboring the Congo. Only 16,000 people travel from the Congo to the U.S. every year, and more than 79 million people have been screened at airports and at various border entries.
In a follow up phone call with the Washington Examiner, a CDC official explained further that a spread to the U.S. was not impossible but was “highly unlikely.” The official pointed out that the symptoms of Ebola were so dire that people who become infected would be likely to immediately go to the emergency room, where medical workers would isolate them quickly and treat them, and public health officials would track down others they had come in contact with.
Migrants from the Congo have been traveling to Latin America and then to the U.S., but would be far too ill to make the journey if they had Ebola. Even if men who were migrating had traces of Ebola in their sperm, the spread of Ebola through sexual contact is more rare than through direct contact, the official explained.
