During the morning of this Tuesday, May 19, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he is “deeply concerned by the magnitude and speed” of the outbreak. ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ugandawhile local authorities warn that the number of dead continues to grow.
According to what was stated by the American network cnnhe outbreak was driven by Bundibugyo virusan infectious agent microscopic acellular disease that can cause Ebola disease and currently mainly affects the remote province of Iturinortheast of the Democratic Republic of the Congoin Africa.
Likewise, according to the director general of the WHO, the Ethiopian biologist and politician Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusuntil the morning of this Tuesday, May 19, there had been registered 131 deaths related to this Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, a country that currently has more than 530 suspected cases.
“I have been saying that the most striking thing is how much we learned and how quickly we did it. There is no doubt that this is probably much worse than we believe at this moment. I suspect the actual number of cases is very superior who is being notified,” added Adhanom, after speaking with the Ugandan Minister of Health.
Concern over Ebola outbreak
According to the British network BBCalthough the Ugandan government assures that its teams work to contain the disease, in the last few hours the alarms have gone off due to the confirmation of more cases, so the spread It was also confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, according to the WHO director general, the risk that Ebola poses to the entire world remains tinygiven that even during the 2016 outbreak only a few cases were recorded out of africa and the majority were health workers who had volunteered as volunteers.
“Despite this, the scenario reflects that the situation is sufficiently complex to require international coordination,” said Dr. Amanda Rojek, of the Institute for Pandemic Sciences at the University of oxfordwho expressed his worry due to “the magnitude” of the outbreak, which he already described as a emergency.
For her part, the doctor Daniela Mannofrom the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of Londonassured that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has extensive experience in managing Ebola outbreaks and that the response is “significantly more robust than a few years ago,” so there will not be a pandemic like that of the covid.
Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda
Under the circumstances, the US limited the entry of people from the affected region, just when an American gave positive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, prompting the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to criticize the move, saying the bans could disrupt the life.
However, the WHO declared that the Ebola epidemic is a “public health emergency of international importance“, so he warned that the high positivity rate and the growing number of cases and deaths They point to “a potentially much larger outbreak than currently detected and reported” in African countries.