rooster59 Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 Militia threat hampers Ebola fight in Congo as disease kills 47 By Stephanie Nebehay FILE PHOTO: Congolese officials and the World Health Organization officials wear protective suits as they participate in a training against the Ebola virus near the town of Beni in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, August 11, 2018. REUTERS/Samuel Mambo/File Photo GENEVA (Reuters) - Militia violence in Democratic Republic of Congo has prevented aid workers from reaching some potential cases in an outbreak of Ebola that has so far killed 47 people, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Over 2,000 people have been potentially exposed to the virus that began in North Kivu province, but the violence means officials cannot be sure if they have identified all the chains by which it is spreading in the east of the vast country. "We don't know if we are having all transmission chains identified. We expect to see more cases as a result of earlier infections and these infections developing into illness," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a news briefing in Geneva. "The worst-case scenario is that we have these security blind spots where the epidemic could take hold that we don't know about," he said. Congo's Health Ministry said confirmed and probable cases numbered 87 in total, including 47 deaths. About 2,150 people have been identified as contacts of people infected with the disease, which causes fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Health workers "have a huge amount of work to do to follow up on these contacts, to continue the investigations and the active search for cases, as well as to prepare the ground for the vaccination teams," the ministry said in a statement late on Friday. The outbreak is spreading across the lush farmlands of eastern Congo. Its epicentre is the town of Mangina in North Kivu province and it has already reached neighbouring Ituri province. Congo has experienced 10 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered on the Ebola River in 1976, altogether killing some 900 people. An epidemic between 2013 and 2016 killed more than 11,300 people in West Africa. The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said an unusually high proportion of the people affected in this outbreak were children. Two children have already died from the disease, and centres in Beni and Mangina were treating six children infected by the disease or suspected to be. UNICEF said it had also identified 53 orphaned children who have lost their parents to Ebola. "The impact of the disease on children is not limited to those who have been infected or suspected," Gianfranco Rotigliano, the UNICEF representative in Congo, said in a statement. "Many children are faced with the illness or death of their parents and loved ones, while some children have lost large parts of their families and become isolated. These children urgently need our support". The WHO said more than 500 people including health workers have been vaccinated against the disease. It had deployed more than 100 experts to Mangina and Beni towns to oversee tracing, vaccination and safe burials. There were, however, "red zones" near Mangina that aid workers could not enter for security reasons, Jasarevic said. -- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatOngo Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 Was'nt there a country that claimed to have developed a cure for ebola……….just can't remember which country that was...…………..! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsiaHand Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 6 hours ago, PatOngo said: Was'nt there a country that claimed to have developed a cure for ebola……….just can't remember which country that was...…………..! Oh Yes ,Now I remember. It was that same country that every time the World Health Organization seems baffled by cures for a disease, that country starts to sound like an ole Snake Oil salesman travailing the western frontier of The US in the 1850s. claiming that his bottle of special herbs and spices can cure everything from gout to cancer. I think that they are trying to sell Democracy to their people in the same fake liquid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargeezr Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 If the Ebola virus spreads will it mean lights out for more of Africa, and anywhere where an infected person who gets ebola and quickly catches an aircraft and flys out of that country? Frightening thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolboy Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said: If the Ebola virus spreads will it mean lights out for more of Africa, and anywhere where an infected person who gets ebola and quickly catches an aircraft and flys out of that country? Frightening thought. There is an effective vaccine now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargeezr Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 I sure hope so and that you have not read a Fake News article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolboy Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 7 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said: I sure hope so and that you have not read a Fake News article. Ebola Outbreak in Congo Has Ended, W.H.O. Says The outbreak, the first in which a new vaccine was quickly rolled out, was extinguished in less than three months, with 33 deaths. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/health/ebola-congo-who.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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