Ebola Outbreak Spreads
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda continues to spread, one month after it was declared. The number of confirmed cases surged from about 500 on Monday to over 800 by Tuesday, an increase of roughly 300 since last week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the virus is still increasing its geographic spread in Congo. Experts are racing against time to prevent a wider health crisis. In Ituri province, where the outbreak began, security forces fired warning shots to disperse crowds attempting to take Ebola victims’ bodies home. Health workers were trying to remove the bodies for community safety.
The WHO states that intense community transmission continues across Central Africa, with new cases and deaths rising. Dr. Marie-Roseline Belizaire of the WHO told CBS News that deaths are still being reported in Congo, indicating many undetected cases. The disease is spreading unchecked in the population.
Efforts to trace contacts of known Ebola cases have seen slow progress. Health workers can only follow up with a little over half of those who came into contact with confirmed cases, leaving about 3,000 potential contacts unaccounted for.
In Uganda, authorities are taking proactive measures. Upon arrival at the airport, CBS News team members had to scan a QR code and declare they hadn’t been in contact with bats, attended funerals, or experienced Ebola symptoms like fever or vomiting. However, this doesn’t apply across the nearly 500-mile border shared with Congo.
Uganda’s National Director of Public Health, Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze, told CBS News that people continue to move freely across the border despite restrictions. He noted that while movement might be minimal under current restrictions, it’s not impossible due to cultural and language similarities between Uganda and Congo.
Dr. Kyabayinze and other epidemiologists are pleased with Uganda’s preventative measures but remain closely monitoring the outbreak in Congo and their shared border. As of June 10, at least 19 Ebola cases were confirmed in Uganda, including two deaths.