Just wonderful - Ebola outbreak

| No Comments

This time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - from the World Health Organization:

Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues this week with 20 new confirmed cases reported in North Kivu and Ituri provinces from 25 September to 1 October 2019, versus 29 in the previous week. This decrease in the number of cases should be interpreted with caution, as operational and security challenges in certain health zones make it difficult to undertake case detection and response functions. With over half (55%) of cases in the past week coming from Mambasa and Mandima Health Zones, there is a clear shift in the hot spots of the outbreak from high density, urban settings, such as Butembo, Katwa, and Beni, to more rural areas with a lower population density. This results in a change in the transmission dynamics, with more community-based transmission and less possible transmission in healthcare facilities. Conversely, this may introduce new issues in terms of accessibility and logistical challenges to reach affected villages, especially as we enter the rainy season.

In Mambasa Health Zone, delays in raising EVD awareness and involving the community and civil society in the response have led to community mistrust. To strengthen the participation of local communities in the response, WHO is working with the community, civil society, and partners in Mambasa Health Zone to engage women’s groups and enhance community-based surveillance. While in Lwemba, within Mandima Health Zone, poor EVD awareness compounded with armed conflict has led to heightened tensions between local communities and Ebola response teams. This has resulted in difficulties in investigating community deaths. Therefore, it is likely that the number of cases and community deaths in this area is under reported.

Emphasis mine - community mistrust? More like tribalism and ignorance. I would take these numbers and multiply them by at least 50. This is spreading out.

Leave a comment

March 2023

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on October 3, 2019 8:03 PM.

Out for a little while was the previous entry in this blog.

The FORTH programming language is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9