Ebola news: ‘Terrifying’ outbreak is spiralling out of control warn experts
THE ONGOING Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has so far claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people, is “terrifying” – and getting worse, health experts have warned.
By CIARAN MCGRATH
Express.co.uk
Wed, May 15, 2019
Meanwhile former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, speaking after a visit to the country, has warned the situation could “spiral out of control”. The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week issued a new set of guidelines aimed at addressing what it termed “vaccination challenges” in treating the ongoing public health crisis in the African country. The move comes after a turbulent period which has seen several treatment centres targeted by angry mobs, and health workers attacked, with several deaths, including WHO epidemiologist Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, which last year pledged £2million to support a rapid response to the outbreak, said: “I’m very concerned – as concerned as one can be.
Dr Farrar, who has called for a ceasefire among warring militia groups in the North Kivu region to allow health teams to reach people suffering from the deadly illness, told The Guardian: “Whether it gets to the absolute scale of west Africa or not, none of us know, but this is massive in comparison with any other outbreak in the history of Ebola and it is still expanding.
“It’s remarkable it hasn’t spread more geographically but the numbers are frightening and the fact that they are going up is terrifying.”
Mr Miliband, who served as former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010, and is now chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said the situation was “far more dangerous” than the statistic of 1,000 deaths, which is the second-largest in history as a result of an Ebola outbreak, suggested.
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