Health authorities in Congo are monitoring nearly 200 passengers from a boat stationed near Kinshasa after a person died with symptoms matching Ebola, sparking panic in the capital.
Quarantine and testing
The passenger had disembarked after getting sick in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 621 miles from Kinshasa, according to Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC. The boat had been travelling for nearly three weeks along the Congo River. All passengers have been tested for Ebola and are in quarantine while awaiting results.
Dr Kaseya said: “We decided to do that even if some of them didn’t have symptoms because we want to make sure that we don’t miss anything.”
Outbreak situation
Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak since May, declared the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases reaching 4,000, including over 1,800 deaths, according to Dr Kaseya. The capital has no confirmed Ebola case.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.
Alarming spread
Authorities say 60-70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate faster than efforts to track it.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the Ebola outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”
Contact tracing challenges
Government data shows 674 patients are currently in isolation, most of them in Ituri. At least 75% of contacts are being traced after their exposure to patients. However, contact tracing has not been effective as most new cases are coming from sources not being monitored and from remote localities where rebel conflict and mining-related movements are limiting access.
