Ebola: WHO cautions against panic, says fear is an outbreak

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa Region has cautioned against panic, with the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda being classified a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

According to it, “Fear by itself is an outbreak” and “Ebola is highly manageable”

Prof. Mohamed Janabi, World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, said this while reacting to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda.

Janabi, a Cardiologist, urged the public to rely on accurate information.

He explained that the classification would help to bring Ebola to international attention, mobilise resources more quickly and ensure countries worked together in a coordinated way.

“Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates.

“But it does not mean people should panic. It means the global system is working as it should be, detecting and responding very decisively,” he added, calling on the media to disseminate correct information

“Fear by itself is an outbreak,” he said.

According to him, Ebola is a very serious disease, but it is one that we know how to control.

“`At now, we have seen the outbreak in two countries: DRC and Uganda.

“Health authorities with the WHO support have already identified cases, tracing contacts. Putting together health response strategies in these two countries.

“WHO had classified it as emergency of international concern.

“This the highest alert WHO can issue, which helps to bring international attention, moblise resources more quickly and ensure countries work together in a coordinated way.”

Janabi said WHO had been working to stop the outbreak in two counties with relevant authorities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in contact tracing and treatment.

“We are engaging communities to create awareness; we are trying to strengthen cross border surveillance to prevent the spread.

“We are mobilising partners across Africa to make sure that these countries get the experience and expertise they needed. We are applying the experience we used in the past to curtail it this time around.”

The UN official, however, said that vaccine was not the only way to curtail Ebola, adding it was important to heighten surveillance, trace contact and treatment, noting that “all of these is what we call management of Ebola cases”.

As of Saturday May 16, health authorities had recorded eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in Ituri province in eastern DRC.

On Sunday, unconfirmed reports indicated that an individual had tested positive for Ebola in the rebel-held city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province and home to one million people.

The confirmed case was believed to be the wife of a man who died after contracting Ebola in Bunia, capital of Ituri province.

Another individual who had travelled from Bunia to Beni in North Kivu also tested positive for Ebola.

Cases have also been confirmed in the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, and across the border in Uganda, where two infected individuals travelled from DRC and were admitted to intensive care.

The Ugandan capital, Kampala, was also impacted, WHO said.

The agency is supporting the Government-led response with 42 health professionals on the ground and supplies already deployed.

The agency has warned that the outbreak was likely larger than currently detected, pointing to clusters of unexplained deaths, a high positivity rate among tested samples and limited understanding of transmission patterns.

At least four deaths among healthcare workers had raised concerns over infection prevention measures in health facilities.

In a statement, the UN agency noted that there was no approved therapy or vaccine to treat the Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak.

“The ongoing insecurity, humanitarian crisis, high population mobility, the urban or semi-urban nature of the current hotspot and the large network of informal healthcare facilities further compound the risk of spread, as was witnessed during the large Ebola virus disease epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in 2018-19,” WHO said.

Meanwhile, experts have stressed that the chances of another global pandemic like the 2019 coronavirus emergency were increasing all the time.

“The world is not safer from pandemics”, experts from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), who underscored how the world’s vulnerability was exposed by an Ebola outbreak a decade ago and then by the “global catastrophe” of COVID 19, said.

“As infectious disease outbreaks become more frequent they are also becoming more damaging, with widening health, economic, political and social impacts, and less capacity to recover from them,” the experts said in a new report.