Ebola outbreak: ‘Every epidemic begins in a community and ends in a community’
The UN health agency on Wednesday assessed there is a high risk from the Bundibugyo strain at the national and regional levels, but a low risk globally.Low pandemic risk – so farHowever, the UN agency’s emergency committee believes that, at this stage, it does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency.To date, 51 cases have been confirmed in the Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, even though the scale of the epidemic is much larger. WHO has tallied nearly 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths so far, with two cases linked to the outbreak detected in Kampala, Uganda.Because no licensed vaccine or specific treatment currently exists for this rare strain the health authorities are seeking to quickly interrupt transmission in a region marked by insecurity and population displacement.With support from UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, the World Food Programme (WFP), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and other partners, experts and medical equipment have already been deployed to the affected areas, while treatment centres are being set up.Speaking to UN News, Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire, the WHO Emergency Director for Africa, emphasized the importance of a response built on community trust. “The speed of the response in the first days is essential to interrupt transmission and avoid a wider spread of this epidemic,” she stressed.
