Congo Ebola outbreak still out of control after six months

Résumé détaillé

Six months into Congo's Ebola outbreak, ​many cases are likely being missed, transmission in hospitals in some areas is rife and the virus ...

Six months into Congo's Ebola outbreak, ​many cases are likely being missed, transmission in hospitals in some areas is rife and the virus is still spreading out of control, Médecins Sans Frontières said on Thursday.

With the number of confirmed cases now surpassing 11,000, the outbreak - declared in mid-May and caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus, for which there are no approved treatments or vaccines - is the second-worst on record.

Help, however, is not reaching those who need it most, the medical charity said, ⁠pointing to untrained and unpaid staff, ambulances without fuel and a lack of surveillance teams and supplies to safely manage suspected ⁠cases.

"Despite the vast amounts of money provided for the response, many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets," Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, MSF's international president, said on Thursday.

MSF called on the ​Congolese government and UN agencies, which ⁠include the World Health Organization, to ensure the resources that have been mobilised translate into support on ​the ground.

The Congolese government did not immediately respond ‌to Reuters requests for comment.

At a separate briefing on Wednesday, British epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who has been working to model the outbreak in real time, said ​case detection remained a major challenge.

For that reason, he said it was likely transmission would still be ongoing a year from now and the outbreak could outstrip the 2014-2016 West African outbreak - the biggest ever - which saw more than 28,600 cases and killed more than 11,000 people.

"Throughout the outbreak, we think we're probably only detecting about half of cases which are occurring," said Ferguson, an epidemiologist and director of public health ‌at Imperial College London.

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