*WHO Warns Fast-moving Epidemic Outpacing Response Efforts
*Patients Flee In Attacks On DRC Health Facilities, Hobbling Response
*Death Toll Rises To Over 220
THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) warns that Nigeria faces a high risk of importing the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) due to rising cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
Though there has been no confirmed case in the country, NCDC said increasing regional transmission, international travel and cross-border population movement raise concerns over the possibility of the disease spreading into Nigeria.
In a statement, the Centre’s Director General, Jide Idris, said NCDC latest risk assessment classified the threat level as high, adding: “This assessment estimated the risk of Ebola importation into Nigeria as high due to the ongoing transmission in the DRC and Uganda, international travel and population movement, uncertainty regarding the full magnitude of the outbreak and the potential for delayed recognition because symptoms may overlap with endemic diseases such as malaria and Lassa fever.”
The Centre said some states have already been identified as vulnerable because of their proximity to land borders, major transport corridors and international entry points.
It, however, that response efforts were ongoing in the affected countries, including surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, infection prevention and control measures, as well as public sensitisation campaigns, adding that the national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been placed on alert mode, while the incident management system has also been activated to strengthen national coordination and outbreak response capacity.
NCDC stated that Nigeria still retains critical structures and expertise developed from previous responses to Ebola and other viral haemorrhagic diseases.
The statement added: “It also must be noted that Nigeria maintains important response capacities, including laboratory capability, trained rapid response teams, functional emergency operations centres (EOCs), established viral haemorrhagic fever preparedness structures, and prior experience in successfully responding to Ebola and other viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks,
“Epidemiologists and rapid response teams (RRTs) are also on alert for rapid deployment to any affected state, if required.”
It further stated that laboratories located in states with international points of entry have been placed on standby, while sample collection and transportation systems were being strengthened to support quick diagnosis of suspected infections, while it has intensified public communication campaigns to combat misinformation and false claims surrounding Ebola.
“NCDC is strengthening public awareness and risk communication activities, intensifying social listening and rumour management systems, and working with media organisations, healthcare professionals, community leaders and digital platforms to amplify credible information and promote responsible public discourse.
“NCDC has also developed and disseminated Ebola Myths and Facts materials to address misinformation and false claims circulating online.”
This came just as Reuters reported the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as lamenting on Monday, May 25, that the fast-moving Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda was outpacing response efforts, giving the latest number of suspected deaths as 220.
Addressing an online meeting of the African Union (AU) about the outbreak, Ghebreyesus said a delay in detecting Ebola cases meant responders were now “playing catch-up” and the epidemic was likely to get worse before it gets better.
He said he would travel to DRC, the epicentre of the outbreak, on Tuesday, with another senior WHO official responsible for addressing health emergencies, Chikwe Ihekweazu, himself a former NCDC director general.
Earlier on Monday, neighbouring Uganda reported two more cases, taking its total number of confirmed cases to seven.
Ghebreyesus said other countries bordering DRC were at high risk and should take immediate action.
The WHO has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola a public health emergency of international concern.
Ghebreyesus said containing the fast-moving outbreak was complicated by the fact that DRC’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces were highly insecure and there were no approved vaccines for Bundibugyo virus.
Meanwhile, doctors operating on the front lines of the fight against Ebola in DRC, already grappling with shortages of basic supplies, are now also having to deal with attacks on their facilities and fleeing patients as the virus spreads rapidly.
At least three such incidents have occurred in Ituri, where the first Ebola cases were reported, including two at the weekend targeting the same hospital that permitted over two dozen patients to run away.
Similar attacks and violence targeting health facilities occured during a 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern DRC that killed over 25 health workers.
Some were perpetrated by civilians angry about not being able to bury their loved ones or convinced the outbreak was a hoax.
The influx of money and manpower into an area that had felt neglected during decades of conflict and humanitarian crisis has spurred local suspicions about the real motives for the sudden spike of interest.
A similar dynamic seems to be playing out now, said Richard Lokodu, medical director of the Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, which came under attack first on Saturday and again on Sunday.
“There is denial of the disease within the population, with some members wanting to claim the bodies of suspected and/or confirmed cases,” he said.
At the Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, 18 Ebola patients fled on Saturday after “unidentified individuals” burned tents erected by medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, where patients were being isolated, Lokodu said.
Four lab results from those patients have come back, three negative results and one positive result, he said, adding: “So, we have one confirmed case of Ebola that continues to circulate in the community and evade the response.”
On Sunday, the hospital came under four waves of attacks by young people mobilised by relatives of a Christian religious leader who died of Ebola, he said.
Seven other patients escaped and DRC Police and soldiers had to mobilise to restore order, he said.
A suspected Ebola patient who was in critical condition with hemorrhaging died in the second attack while trying to flee from his bed, Lokodu added.
The bodies of Ebola victims are highly infectious after death and unsafe burials, in which family members handle the body without proper protective equipment, are a leading driver of transmission.
