BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO – The Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr Jean Kaseya, and the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Professor Mohamed Yakub Janabi, paid a visit to Bunia on Tuesday to reassess emergency response efforts following a rising Ebola outbreak.
The visiting team landed at Bunia Airport before inspecting an Ebola treatment centre that was just inaugurated in the Rwankole suburb of Bunia, where they met with health workers and other community leaders.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the outbreak, which is caused by the Bundibugyo variant, has claimed 3,748 confirmed cases and 1,657 deaths as of August 1.
“Current containment approaches are not proving effective,” Dr Kaseya said. “Contact tracing is not working; when you have more than 60 to 70 per cent of new cases emerging from the contact list, we can no longer say that it works,” Kaseya said, recommending new approaches to containment, active engagement of the communities, and strong political will.
“We must sit down with the people here on the ground, daily, discuss with them, with the leaders, what is lacking, why people do not go to hospitals or to the treatment centres,” Professor Janabi said.
Efforts to respond still face many challenges, such as ongoing community transmission, local security problems, and a lack of contact tracing.
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