The World Health Organization head is visiting Uganda, praising its “prompt and capable response” to the Ebola outbreak across the border in DRC’s Ituri province. Uganda has logged just a few cases, mainly imported.
On Monday, the director-general of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visited Uganda, which borders the epicenter of the latest Ebola outbreak in Ituri province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The WHO has declared a public health emergency over the current outbreak, which was announced on May 15 in the northeastern DRC.
Tedros was in the DRC last week, in the gold mining hub of Ituri province that has been at the center of the latest outbreak, involving more than 500 confirmed cases.
What did Tedros say during his visit to Uganda?
Tedros praised local authorities and their success in largely containing the handful of cases that have come across the border.
“I am in Uganda, where the government has mounted a prompt and capable response to the outbreak of Ebola,” he wrote.
“Screening at the borders helped detect cases arriving from neighboring DRC, and the country’s surveillance, testing and case management systems are doing steady work,” he said.
Tedros said there had been 19 confirmed cases in Uganda, 14 among people who entered from DRC and five Ugandan nationals. Two had died, he said, offering their loved ones his condolences. He pledged continued WHO support, in conjuction with the Africa CDC, in combating and controlling the outbreak.
Asked by a Reuters reporter about Uganda’s decision in late May to close its border to DRC, he said that blanket travel restrictions did not work, “so I hope they [Ugandan authorities] reconsider.”
Dr. Diana Atwine, a permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health in Uganda, also commented after the talks.
“[Tedros] is in the country to assess Uganda’s readiness to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak and to support efforts aimed at strengthening cross-border coordination to prevent further exportation of Ebola cases from Congo and to bring the outbreak to an end,” she said.
Africa CDC updates confirmed caseload, mostly for Ituri province
Also on Monday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control or Africa CDC issued updated lab-confirmed case numbers for the current outbreak.
Africa’s top public health agency said there had been a total of 544 confirmed Ebola cases, and 88 deaths. Of the cases, 515 were from the DRC’s Ituri province. These figures differ slightly from those offered a day earlier by the DRC.
The confirmed caseloads are sure to be smaller, largely because of difficulties testing and confirming in the remote wartorn region, than the actual and suspected totals.
The outbreak, the 17th in the DRC since 1976, involves the comparatively rare Bundibugyo species of ebolavirus for which there is no recognized vaccine.
While this complicates treatment, the current case and death numbers also suggest it is not among the most lethal forms of Ebola — with a fatality rate of less than 20% among confirmed cases, compared to rates often exceeding 50% in past outbreaks. Improved treatment, containment and detection methods may also play a role in these figures.
The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million (roughly €450-million) plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months.
US doctor and family discharged from Berlin hospital no longer showing symptoms
Meanwhile, in Berlin, a US doctor and his family were discharged from the specialist Charite Hospital over the weekend.
The doctor was working as a medical missionary in the DRC, along with his family, when he contracted the virus. At the request of the US government, he was flown to the specialist wing of the Berlin hospital for treatment.
Charite said no virus had been detected in the patient since May 30. He had been admitted on May 20.
