ABUJA, Nigeria — Authorities in eastern Congo are shifting to a village-centered approach to fight the Ebola outbreak , Africa’s top public health agency said Thursday, as the virus continues to spread faster than efforts to track and contain it.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention : Delays in detection, reluctance to report cases and inadequate community engagement are contributing to preventable deaths. However, experts have called for more treatment and isolation centers and beds in affected health zones to prepare for cases that have yet to be detected. Experts also say that laboratory testing capacity needs to be expanded in order to promptly identify cases and treat patients.
Since it was declared in mid-May, it has spread from three health zones to 60, with 6,250 cases, including 3,039 deaths, government data showed, mostly fueled by insecurity, displacement and intense population movements . At least 63% of deaths recorded in the past week occurred outside Ebola treatment centers, Africa CDC data showed. Health data shows that treatment centers had expanded capacity to more than 1,300 beds in late August while their occupancy rate is currently at 67% with 869 patients.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak has likely not yet peaked. Here are five areas where Congo’s response to the outbreak is still falling short, according to a report this week from the U.S. The World Health Organization said last month that several treatment and transit centres in Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter, were “saturated” while North Kivu, the second-most affected province, lacked sufficient options to refer patients to specialized facilities.
