The Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, warned this Sunday that the humanitarian crisis, insecurity, and displacement of people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could lead to “a major continental outbreak” of Ebola.

“When the Africa CDC declared it on May 15, we immediately saw that it was a regional, and even continental, threat,” Kaseya said during a virtual press conference six months after the outbreak was declared.

According to Kaseya, the conditions he observed during his visit to the northeastern province of Ituri—the epicenter of the epidemic—represent a breeding ground for the virus to spread beyond national borders.

“This outbreak, as I saw it when I visited Ituri—a region with insecurity, with a humanitarian crisis, with people living in camps without any basic support, with enormous population movement, and which is also a mining area—coupled with community distrust, could lead to a major continental outbreak,” he warned.

The Director-General stressed that, while neighboring countries that detected imported cases are managing to contain the transmission, in the DRC “we are still in the midst of this fight” and warned donors and international partners that “delaying aid would force us to ask for more funding.”

In this regard, he highlighted Kenya’s response, which has already begun the 42-day observation period without new infections to be declared Ebola-free after registering 9 confirmed cases and 2 deaths.

“When we had the first case there, we saw that being well prepared saves lives. If Kenya had not been well prepared, today it would not have nine confirmed cases and two deaths, but perhaps many more,” said Kaseya, who also noted that Nigeria managed to stop the spread after confirming infections in its territory.

The head of the Africa CDC also explained that the organization had to “sound the alarm” due to the lack of financial information shared by international partners with the Congolese Executive, given that local authorities only had visibility on 260 million dollars compared to the 960 million initially requested from donors.

IN THIS ARTICLE