2018-19 Ebola Outbreak Continues to Defy Efforts of Containment

Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has hit what officials are calling a “milestone” as more than 3,000 confirmed and probable cases are estimated to exist currently and the death toll above 2,000, according to the latest data released on Friday. Those figures may not be reliable. If the estimates were 10,000 cases the entire country could quickly be quarantined and its economy crippled.

By James DiGeorgia

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a population of 92 million. So the potential for a nightmare epidemic in the hundreds of thousands or millions is possible.

Ebola outbreaks are not uncommon in the Congo. This is the country’s 10^th and the second-worst epidemic of the virus ever recorded. Only the 2014-15Ebola outbreaks in West Africa have been deadlier than the current outbreak. More than 11,300 people died then, out of 28,000 infected.

It’s a potentially a world security risk when one considers this the first outbreak in the densely forested in the country’s hillside provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. At this location, militia-led violence and ethnic killing are making it a life and death effort to contain the violence because the area is riddled with anti-government guerilla and now ISIS military groups.

The militias are willing to slaughter U.S., UN, and European aid works for the sheer terror effect, and they would love for this ebola crisis to threaten and kill millions in the country.

The revolutionary development of an effective vaccine and treatments in the wake of the last outbreak in 2013-16 has been limited help to health workers because of the remote terrain and the rouge military, so the spread of the Ebola is impossible to stop

The International Federation of the Red Cross said in what can only be considered an understatement…

‘For the treatments to work, people need to trust them and the medical staff who administer them… this will take time, resources, and a lot of hard work.’

The Ebola virus is spreading. In neighboring, Uganda officials acknowledged on Friday that a young girl who had tested positive for Ebola after crossing the border is the fourth reported case imported from Congo since June, who has died.

World Health Organization, Christian Lindmeier, said on Tuesday…

‘We are fighting literally with all partners on the ground to reach people, to reach contacts, to identify cases as early as possible.’

The authorities are coming up with alarming but still isolated reports of newly reported cases throughout the Congo fanning fears that this Ebola outbreak could become epidemic and has the potential to accelerate. Timothée Buliga, a Goma resident a city of about 2 million within the Congo, was quoted as saying…

 ‘Two thousand deaths means that there is a problem…We need to reach the point where we reject Ebola, say no and eradicate it definitively.’

The Ebola outbreak was first declared by the DRC Ministry of Health on August 1, 2018.  As for the vast amount of cases of Ebola during this outbreak so far have occurred in the two northeastern DRC provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.

The West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014-2015 infected 28,616 cases, including 11,310 deaths, in the three African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone).

So the cross-border spread reported in Uganda in an area bordering the DRC has been of great concern. Thankfully, no new cases have been reported in Uganda in more than 42 days, Uganda has been declared Ebola-free for now.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is a high risk of further spread within the DRC and across borders to Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda.