Flawed tests and funerals allowed Ebola to spread undetected in Congo

By the time health officials confirmed new Ebola infections in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week, the total number of suspected cases meant the outbreak was already one of the largest on record. A series of challenges and missteps delayed detection, two Congolese officials familiar with the response told Reuters, allowing the disease to spread undetected into rebel-held territory in the east and across the border to the capital of Uganda. Local funeral practices helped the virus spread before any alarm was raised, diagnostic tests in a local laboratory were calibrated for the wrong strain of Ebola, and samples sent to Kinshasa were not stored or shipped properly, the officials said. Experts say the resulting delays risk hobbling efforts to contain the outbreak, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the weekend declared a public health emergency of international concern. “It’s just a scattered mess right now. I don’t think we have anything close to a real idea of how many cases there are,” said Craig Spencer, an emergency physician and public health professor at Brown University. “Its going to be quite some time before you’re able to piece this together.” Health worker was first known case The outbreak is centred in the northeastern province of Ituri, a remote part of Congo grappling with poor health infrastructure and armed conflict. The WHO has so far reported 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases in Congo, though the true number may be much higher. The first known patient developed fever, vomiting and hemorrhaging and died at a medical centre in Bunia, Ituri’s capital, on April 24, Samuel Roger Kamba, Congo’s health minister, told reporters on Saturday. The person was a health worker, meaning there is little chance they were the first to become sick, Spencer said. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are contagious, but mourners gathered for a funeral, believing the death was caused by a mystical illness, Kam