The race against time to contain Ebola

Link copiedShareShare articleLoading...Near the heart of the spreading Ebola outbreak, young mother Marléne is well aware of the potential danger. She's brought her two-month-old daughter, Deborah, to be vaccinated at a health facility in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The north-eastern region of Ituri has so far seen more than 100 confirmed cases of the disease, with more in neighbouring North Kivu. Marléne, whose name has been changed due to the stigma surrounding Ebola, sees the damage the disease can do through images shared online. "From what we see circulating on phones, we notice the symptoms," she says, speaking to health workers from nonprofit Save the Children. "People say the disease is transmitted through contact. For example, if I am infected, through sweat my child could also become infected. "This is what worries us the most — how we can protect our children." Tensions are running high — according to the World Health Organization, violence against health facilities and community resistance is proving a major barrier to combating the outbreak. But this is the 17th Ebola outbreak the DRC has faced since 1976. It is not unprepared. Perth GP Dr Saschveen Singh has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) since 2017, and was on the ground during the last major Ebola virus outbreak in the DRC in 2018-19. For now, she's based out of the organisation's Paris headquarters, a member of the epidemic response team supporting their emergency response. Two of her colleagues have already flown out to the front line, and Dr Singh is on call to do the same in coming weeks. The big problem, she says, is while the outbreak rages on, the "routine" work continues. "We have to ensure … pregnant women can access important antenatal support, and that they can deliver safely," she says. "[There are] children and adults with malaria. That is a really rapidly fatal disease … we need to ensure they are diagnosed and treated rapidly so they don't end up in hospital. "There's still people with tuberculosis, with HIV, with diabetes, they need to be able to access their ongoing drugs. Efforts to contain the ongoing outbreak are unfolding in what the United Nations called "one of the most volatile" regions of the eastern DRC. As of May 29, there have been 906 suspected cases, and 223 suspected deaths. Unlike other Ebola virus outbreaks, this time transmission comes from a rarer form of the disease, known as Bundibugyo virus. It's spread through bodily fluids, has similar early symptoms to the common cold, and there is no currently approved vaccine. Health officials on the ground are dealing with a shortage of Bundibugyo-specific virus testing kits while battling a number of other diseases also common in the area. The lack of confirmation, according to Dr Singh, means the true scale of the outbreak is difficult to determine. Of the more than 1,100 suspected cases sampled, she says, less than 10 per cent had been confirmed. "And what that indicates to us is that there's a critical gap in diagnosis, there's a whole number of patients … being isolated as suspected cases," she says. "But there's such a big delay in actually being able to either confirm or refute their diagnosis, that really slows down the epidemiological response and contact tracing. The number of suspected and confirmed cases is rising rapidly, and the number of people on the list for contact tracing has surpassed 2,630. In the span of eight days, the number of suspected cases increased by 160. In the WHO's May 29 situation report, they record 134 confirmed cases, nine of which are in Uganda, and 18 confirmed deaths. Among those confirmed deaths were three Red Cross volunteers, who likely caught the disease while managing dead bodies on March 27. Alikana Udumusi Augustin, Sezabo Katanabo, and Ajiko Chandiru Viviane were working on a "humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola", according to their organisation. They would have been exposed before the outbreak had been identified, and are among the first known victims of the outbreak. Also exposed was an American doctor, who tested positive on May 17 and has since been transported to Germany for treatment. Another factor complicating things for those on the ground is what the WHO is calling a "catastrophic collision of disease and conflict". The DRC is the site of one of the most complex displacement crises on the planet, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Conflict, instability, epidemics and climate shock have taken a severe toll on the country. A decades-long struggle for independence now sees militant and rebel groups, the Congolese armed forces and foreign forces battling for control. Rachel Criswell, the UNHCR spokesperson in the Congo, says there are almost 1 million displaced people at the epicentre of the situation. That conflict affects every aspect of getting the Ebola outbreak under control. "Imagine taking the en

The race against time to contain Ebola

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