May 31 (Reuters) – As of May 30, 263 confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya said.
More than 1,100 suspected cases are being investigated and 43 people are confirmed to have died as a result of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, Kaseya said in an FT op-ed published on Sunday.
Here are a few other details:
• Kesaya said national incident systems must be activated rapidly, and investments in pandemic preparedness must become permanent
• International partners play an essential role, but their support matters most when it aligns with strategies that are built by African institutions and African governments, he said
• The Ebola outbreak – the 17th in Democratic Republic of Congo and the third-largest since Ebola was discovered half a century ago – is outpacing the global response
• Health officials and aid workers say they lack even basic supplies such as masks after the outbreak spread was undetected for weeks
• The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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