Ministers in the Democratic Republic of Congo called for a "humanitarian corridor" during a press conference on the Ebola outbreak in the African nation. On May 15, the DRC declared an outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment, and which has a fatality rate of up to 50%. The WHO has issued an international health alert.
“During the monkeypox outbreak, we already called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor. We asked that the response—whether for monkeypox or now—not be a sequential one, meaning there shouldn't be a response for the country and then a micro-response for Goma, because that wouldn't be effective. You can see that the case in Goma originated in Bunia, ” declared Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba, Minister of Public Health of the DRC.
At least 220 people have reportedly died from the ongoing Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization's director-general has said. The UN agency indicated that due to delays in case detection, health professionals now need to "catch up . "
You can see that it is still very difficult to convince people that this disease is transmitted by contact and that it is dangerous to touch the patient, dangerous to touch the body because it is contagious. So this is a significant form of resistance. A second form of resistance that we observed at the beginning, but which has considerably decreased, was the belief that it was a mystical disease,” said Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba.
This announcement comes as Ugandan health authorities reported two new cases of Ebola on Monday, bringing the number of infections in the country to seven, after the number of suspected cases in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo exceeded 900.
All these cases are linked to the epidemic in Congo, which appears to have started several days, or even several weeks, before the authorities in that country declared the epidemic on May 15.
