“It is only a matter of time” before an Ebola case is imported to South Africa if the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not contained, one of SA’s top infectious disease experts has warned.“We have daily flights to the DRC. The fact that there haven’t yet been cases in South Africa is a reflection of the work being done to keep it contained, but it is spreading,” said Prof Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the Aids programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa) and chair of a panel that advises the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on infectious diseases.“We are one continent. What impacts the DRC impacts all of us,” he said.The outbreak is one of the biggest recorded to date, with more than 830 confirmed cases and 196 deaths in the DRC, and 19 cases and two deaths in Uganda, according to the Africa CDC. Abdool Karim, who recently travelled to Bunia at the epicentre of the current Ebola outbreak, said the void left after US President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was apparent. “Normally in these kinds of responses, USAID would play a huge role in logistics,” he said. In every battle — military or epidemic — intelligence is key to effective action. To control Ebola, every case needs to be identified timeously for isolation and contact tracing. Electronic information is essential for this to be effective— Prof Salim Abdool KarimNot only did USAID have the ability to quickly procure supplies, but it also had the expertise and systems in place to import, warehouse, and transport the goods to where they were most needed, said Abdool Karim, urging other countries to do more to assist the DRC.Health-care facilities urgently need more isolation facilities and are desperately short of construction materials that had to be shipped in, including basic items such as gravel, he said. Abdool Karim suggested China, which rapidly built emergency hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic, could provide its expertise to help construct isolation wards in DRC. Chinese authorities built a 1000-bed hospital in Wuhan in just 10 days, using pre-fabricated sections that were rapidly assembled on site by crews working around the clock.Ebola is spread by direct contact with body fluids and has an incubation period ranging from a few days to three weeks. Suspected cases are isolated but patients with confirmed Ebola can share a ward.Abdool Karim said staff kept meticulous hand-written records at the two hospitals he visited, but the DRC’s efforts to contain the outbreak are being hampered by the lack of an electronic information system.“In every battle — military or epidemic — intelligence is key to effective action. To control Ebola, every case needs to be identified timeously for isolation and contact tracing. Electronic information is essential for this to be effective.”Business Day