An aid worker in Africa. BBC/Reuters.
Efforts to contain an outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been suspended after rebel Islamist violence. BBC. World Health Organization workers were forced to flee after a battle broke out just feet away from their base at an emergency center. The battle was between government forces and the Allied Democratic Force, an Islamist militia active since the 1990's. After the battle, the WHO workers fled the city of Beni, where the outbreak is centered. The outbreak has already killed at least 200 people.
My Comment:
A quick update on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It seems that things are not going very good in Beni. With the WHO pulling out, it's going to be up to local officials to try and prevent the spread of the outbreak. And if they were capable of doing that the WHO wouldn't be there in the first place. This outbreak is going to spread quickly now and I am guessing the already overworked doctors are going to be overwhelmed.
Efforts to vaccinate people will have stopped and that is the only sure way to stop the Ebola virus. After all the work to create the vaccine after the major outbreak a few years back, it is now useless because aid workers can't get to the people that need the vaccine.
Contact tracing can't happen now either. That means people that may have been infected won't be isolated and the virus can be spread without anyone able to slow it down. Contact tracing and medical isolation are necessary steps to slow down the virus but that can't happen with rebels running around getting into running gun battles with the government.
The good news is that the virus isn't likely to spread beyond the conflict zone, and if it does it will be much easier to contain. Indeed, if it wasn't for the war with the ADF I am guessing this outbreak would have been taken care of already. Our response to Ebola virus has gotten better since the huge outbreak a few years back and we have successfully beaten a few similar smaller outbreaks.
The bad news is that the people in Beni are pretty much screwed. No help can reach them now and it isn't clear when the WHO is going to come back, if ever. That means the virus is going to spread rapidly and it is going to continue to kill people. And that's assuming that they aren't killed in the fighting. It's a lose lose situation for the civilians caught in the crossfire.
What is needed is a cease fire. Both sides need to stay away from Beni and let the heath workers do their jobs. Doing so would be in their best interests as well as they are just as vulnerable to the Ebola virus as anyone else. Time will tell if that happens but I am not holding my breath. The ADF has been around since the 1990's so I doubt they are the type to give up even if there is a damn good reason for them to do so.
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