DRC Ebola total tops 600; vaccination team attacked
Officials also said that 5 more people have died from their illnesses, 3 in Beni, plus 1 each in Butembo and Oicha. Two of the deaths occurred in the community, a factor known to increase the risk of virus spread, given that family caregivers don’t have personal protective gear and because virus levels are at their highest during the severe phase of illness and at death.
The fatality count is now at 368.
Regarding vaccination activities, the ministry said yesterday that protests related to a national election voting delay in some Ebola-hit areas interrupted immunization in six locations: Goma, Beni, Butembo, Katwa, Komanda, and Mabalako.
According to today’s update, since the immunization campaign began with Merck’s unlicensed VSV-EBOV vaccine on Aug 8, 54,153 people have been vaccinated.
Samaritan’s Purse to open treatment center
Meanwhile, Samaritan’s Purse said yesterday that it will open a 20-bed treatment center, which will be housed in an emergency field hospital that was flown to Africa in November. If needed, the unit can be expanded to 60 beds. Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational Christian international relief organization based in Boone, N.C.
On the day after Christmas a 21-member disaster assistance response team left for the DRC, and since then, other staff have arrived in the country. The group said it has had a country office in the DRC for 8 years and had already been working on community awareness campaigns in the current outbreak.
It has also installed five isolation centers and provided infection prevention and control training for 15 local health centers.
Oxfam suspends work due to protests
Oxfam, one of several nongovernmental organizations involved in the response, said in a Dec 28 statement that violent protests in Beni and Butembo in the wake of election problems has forced it to suspend its work at the locations. According to the WHO’s regular situation reports, Oxfam has been supporting vaccination, community engagement, infection prevention and control, and patient care.
A long-delayed general election was held on Dec 30, but a few days earlier, the country’s election commission announced a voting delay for people in some outbreak areas, triggering violent protests.
Raphael Mbuyi, the group’s acting country director, said, “This is an extremely worrying situation, as every time the Ebola response has been suspended before we’ve seen a big spike in the number of new cases. This could mean Ebola spreading to even more people and potentially other countries in the region, putting many more lives at risk.”
However, he added that it’s not surprising that people who have lost their votes at the last minute are frustrated and taking to the streets.
