The Ebola virus is spreading rapidly in the DRC. In Kinshasa, a city of millions, fears of a serious health crisis are growing. Hospitals are scrambling to prepare for emergencies as best as they can.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Io4LFear of Ebola infections is growing in the Congo as there is still no vaccine available against the viral diseaseImage: Xin Huashefa/Xinhua/picture allianceAdvertisementThe Ebola epidemic in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has now spread to a sixth province in the country. Concerns are growing that the life-threatening infectious disease could spread to the capital, Kinshasa, which is home to 19 million people.
Facilities for isolating patients are ready for the event that a public health alert should reach the capital, says Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Director General of the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB).
"If there is a suspected case, the epidemiological services and the INRB laboratory are ready to quickly identify and confirm cases," he told DW.
The Ministry of Health has set up the Cinquantenaire Hospital so that it can admit and fully isolate patients if necessary. We are prepared. We can quickly contain an Ebola outbreak here in Kinshasa."
However, the virus has been spreading faster than health authorities can contain it. This Ebola outbreak is driven by the rare Bundiyugyo strain of the virus, for which no vaccine or treatment has yet been approved.
According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), the outbreak, given its rapid rise, could surpass the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 – 2016. .
At that time, 11,000 people died, while the current health crisis has already claimed 2,000 lives, with more than 4,300 cases recorded to date. Authorities officially announced the outbreak on May 15; three months later, the country remains on edge.
The WHO meanwhile expects the current outbreak to only peak in six months.
The initial infections meanwhile can be traced back to as early as February, according to reports. The epicenter of the outbreak was identified as the northeastern province of Ituri, which has been plagued by insecurity for years, and is home a large number of internally displaced persons.
Many other cases have meanwhile also been reported in the provinces of North and South Kivu, where the security situation is even a bigger problem; authorities have effectively lost control over entire areas in their years-long conflict with M23 rebels and affiliated groups.
Fear among the population of contracting the virus is also growing every day. A week ago, the threat came close to the capital when a boat was stopped at the port of Maluku, about 65 kilometers upstream from Kinshasa.
One of the passengers had previously disembarked in Mongala Province to seek medical help, presenting with typical Ebola symptoms such as fever and diarrhea.
Shortly thereafter, the patient died, prompting more than 200 passengers from the vessel to be placed in isolation. Teams from the Ministry of Health and the WHO tested them using a mobile laboratory — but the results came back negative.
But with its population of millions, this did not mean the all-clear for Kinshasa: Every day people come and go between cities and provinces, leaving potentially lethal traces behind.
In fact, the rapid spread of the current outbreak has been positivel attributed to large-scale population movements as well as ongoing violence in main affected areass.
Beyond the diagnosis of the disease and isolation of patients, capacity remains one of the biggest challenges for Kinshasa if the virus were to make its way there.
However, the Center for Public Health Emergency Response (COUSP) says that plans to further expand its capacity to be able to meet the onset of any outbreak.
Emergency preparations have already been taken at Cinquantenaire Hospital: "We have set up twenty beds for this purpose. However, this capacity is flexible and can be expanded to 200 or 250 beds," Christian Ngandu, the hospital's coordinator, told DW; however, according to the WHO, several thousand beds would need to be ready in the worst-case scenario.
"We are currently exploring the possibility of providing additional beds. We have trained more than 120 people from various facilities, including the Vijana, Sino-Congolais, Kinkole, Kintambo, and Cinquantenaire hospitals. These professionals are capable of treating any potential Ebola case."
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However according to Carlos Mupili, president of the Supreme Council of Civil Society, current capacities are insufficient: "Twenty beds are insignificant in this city, and a single hospital is not enough. Several health facilities should have been mobilized to prevent the outbreak effectively," he told DW.
Mupili has been calling on authorities to provide more resources to avoid unpleasant surprises: "The authorities must act swiftly and provide the necessary resources so we are not overwhelmed and ... forced to make hasty decisions."
WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus cautioned that an unexpected surge in infections could ensue anywhere, as contact-tracing of infected individuals has been slow; Ghebreyesus expressed "concern" about the fact that many people dying from the virus have not been registered on the official Ebola contact lists before being buried.
Furthermore, he stressed that many infections originate from from funerals.
Ngandu meanwhile emphasizes the fact that there has not been a single case of Ebola in Kinshasa so far, and that the primary strategy is to keep things that way.
To break the fast-moving chains of transmission, 95% of all contacts must be tracked; currently, that rate is believe to be around only 80%.
Scientists meanwhile are scrambling to find a cure: Clinical trials of two anti-viral treatments are underway, and work on vaccines is also in progress. The results — so far — look promising.
To date, there have been no mutations of the virus observed in the current DRC outbreak, commented Sylvie Briand, the WHO's chief scientist, which has been a small source of hope amid the growing crisis:
Mutations of the virus could be highly dangerous, with the potential of becoming more lethal or increasing the transmission rate, thus jumping across borders faster.
