Panic spreads in DR Congo as death toll from Ebola outbreak crosses 130

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KINSHASA — At least 131 deaths and more than 513 suspected cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo as an international effort is underway to contain an Ebola outbreak in the country and neighboring Uganda, officials said.

Residents of Ituri province in eastern DRC, where the World Health Organization announced an outbreak of Ebola last week, are living in growing fear of the possible spread of the disease and its deadly impacts, nearly six years after the last outbreak in the region ended.

“We’re stunned by the resurgence of Ebola in our region,” said Dieudonné Lossadekana, a resident of Bunia city, where the first suspected case was reported.

“We’ve already recorded several dozen deaths. For us, it’s heartbreaking,” Lossadekana told the Guardian newspaper.

The economic impacts of the outbreak are a serious worry, and residents are concerned that authorities may impose restrictions that would hinder them from earning a living in a region plagued by armed conflict and where people are already struggling financially.

A spokesman for the DR Congo government said cases were now being reported over a wider area.

There are also two confirmed cases and one death in Uganda, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The United States has invoked a public health law to limit entry from the affected region after anAmerican working in the DRC tested positive for Ebola, the CDC confirmed on Monday.

Though the CDC did not identify the person, the international charity Serge reported that a Christian missionary physician – Dr. Peter Stafford – had “tested positive” after “presenting symptoms consistent with the virus.”

His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, and another physician – both of whom were treating patients when the outbreak began – are being monitored for signs of the virus but are currently asymptomatic, the charity said. The couple’s four children are also being monitored.

Dr. Stafford will now be taken to Germany for treatment, his charity said.

CBS News reported that at least six Americans have been exposed to the Ebola virus during the outbreak in the DR Congo.

The CDC said it was supporting the "safe withdrawal of a small number of Americans who are directly affected", but did not confirm how many.

The US government is reportedly looking to arrange transport for the small group of Americans in DR Congo to a safe quarantine location, a source told health news site STAT.

Quoting a source, the site adds that the group could be taken to a US military base in Germany, though this has not been confirmed.

The CDC declined to answer direct questions about the US citizens reportedly affected during a press conference on Sunday.

In an update on Monday, the public health agency said the risk to the US was relatively low, but said it would introduce a range of measures to prevent the disease from entering the country.

This includes monitoring travellers arriving from affected areas and placing entry restrictions on non-US passport holders if they have been in Uganda, DR Congo or South Sudan in the last 21 days.

The CDC said it would work with airlines and other partners to carry out contact tracing of passengers, increase testing capacity and hospital readiness to respond to the outbreak.

The US has also issued a Level Four travel advisory — its most severe level — warning against travel to the DR Congo.

Jean Kaseya, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said that in the absence of vaccines and effective medicines people should follow public health measures, including the guidance about handling the funerals of those who have died from the disease.

"We don't want people infected because of funerals," he told the BBC.

Community funerals, where people helped wash the bodies of their loved ones, contributed to many people becoming infected in the earlier stages of the big outbreak more than a decade ago.

The WHO has advised DR Congo and Uganda, two countries with confirmed cases, to undertake cross-border screenings to avoid the virus spreading.

It has also urged nearby countries to "enhance their preparedness and readiness", including surveillance at health facilities and communities.

Rwanda said it would be tightening screening along its border with DR Congo as a "precautionary measure", while Nigeria said it was "closely monitoring the situation".

The WHO has said the outbreak in DR Congo's eastern Ituri province is a public health emergency of international concern, but did not meet the criteria of a pandemic.

However, with cases now identified in new areas including Nyakunde in Ituri Province, Butembo in North Kivu, and the city of Goma, concern is inevitably growing.

The agency has warned it could potentially be "a much larger outbreak" than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant risk of local and regional spread.

More than 28,600 people were infected by Ebola during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest outbreak of the virus since its discovery in 1976.

The disease spread to a number of countries within and outside of West Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, killing 11,325 people.