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DRC Ebola Outbreak 2019 Blog 14 CONCLUSION
Published in February 2019, the WHO Strategic response plan for the Ebola virus outbreak in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri are a blueprint for controlling this outbreak. It lays out the major risk factors, strengths and implementation plans of the WHO coalition strategy to neutralize this outbreak (75). To implement this plan the required budget was US $148 million and itemized lists are included in the report.
On June 5th, 2019 the CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, a strong advocate for US CDC intervention from the beginning of the DRC outbreak, told the US Congress that the DRC Ebola vaccine will run out and that the Ebola virus has a very high probably of spreading internationally. With 2,500 plus cases and Ebola cases found in neighboring Uganda, this DRC Ebola outbreak were never controlled and the USA and other governments are only now waking up to this fact (95-97).
In mid-July 2019 the WHO finally declared a PHEIC just as an Ebola virus case reached Goma, DRC, a city of 2 million people (98). Considerations for the PHEIC were the entry of the Ebola outbreak into Goma, the WHO coalition’s year long struggle against this outbreak while it continues to advance at a moderately rapid pace, the depletion of the vaccine supply and an inability of the global community to muster enough funds, personnel and resources to control the outbreak. Given the recent entrance of an Ebola virus case into the metropolis Goma, controlling the Ebola virus outbreak in this setting will be difficult.
Goma as a large city on the front lines of an Ebola outbreak differs from the successful control of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria (see text). In 2014 the infected Ebola virus carrier had to fly over 1,500 kilometers (2,000 miles) to reach Lagos. Goma is in this DRC Ebola hot zone. Therefore, as long as the northeastern region of DRC has this outbreak, Ebola virus carriers are threats to Goma. A second break that helped control the 2014 Lagos outbreak was that the Ebola carrier fainted when he reached Lagos airport. Once it was determined he came from an Ebola zone testing was done and the patient was immediately put into isolation. In the case of Goma this first patient was ill at presentation, he was tested and found to have Ebola virus. As discussed in the text, preclinical Ebola virus carriers will not have symptoms because it is too early in the infection cycle to present with a fever, and subclinical cases who can shed Ebola virus will not present with fever. As discussed throughout this essay these type of Ebola virus cases will be hard to find in Goma or in any large city, let alone in this harsh environment which is ideal for pandemic evolution.
In the July 2019 PHEIC declaration the WHO again reminded us of the unfulfilled commitments from developed countries to stop this outbreak. There is no quarrel with the many humanitarian organizations across the world, some of whom are closely associated with their governments who have contributed to this outbreak and their national and global public health obligations. And there are physical and political risks for nations working to halt this epidemic in the northeast DRC. Yet many developed countries’ leaders or their governments are indifferent to this ongoing DRC Ebola epidemic, assuming that distance, wealth, abundant resources and medical and scientific superiority make their nations invincible to any 21st century pandemic. A detailed discussion in the text gives facts and data that address most of these delusional myths (99-100).
Many nations have allocated large annual sums of money to global warfare (discussed in the text) while other multi-national multi-year joint projects have sizable budgets to cure cancer, halt global warming, clean the environment and other important programs (72-73, 101). These global projects, on the opposite ends of the spectrum, share two topics. The first is that their budgets and resource requirements approach 100 to 1,000 times the several billion dollars required to control this DRC Ebola virus outbreak. The second is that if this DRC Ebola outbreak is not immediately controlled these nations will never see further advancement of these projects.
It’s time for advocates, institutions and professionals to insist that their governments fully and emergently commit to assist this PHEIC declaration to end this DRC Ebola outbreak. Given that this Ebola virus outbreak is already at the doors of Goma, DRC we are already extremely late in the battle. As stated in the beginning of this essay, this isn’t the only battle with lethal EIDs that confronts all of us. We will have to unify humanity for these many perilous EID wars. Long term global unity requires that inequities, injustices and the misuse of power must be addressed. Do we have time to squabble, harm and war against each other in the face of these multiple global threats? The wars against EIDs are already here and will last well into the future - or end very swiftly in the next few weeks to months.
Wake up, this is war! Stop the Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola virus outbreak.
Na’eem A. Abdullah, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.M.
Copyright © 2019 Na’eem A. Abdullah All Rights Reserved
Thank you for reading this essay. Please leave comments in the section below or email: info@thepandemicplaybook.com
Dr. Abdullah is the author of a forthcoming book on emerging infectious diseases and pandemics. He owns the website ThePandemicPlaybook.com where he occasionally blogs about information in this field.
ThePandemicPlaybook.com (TPP) is an information website dedicated to assisting the general public, governments and international institutions understand the global biosecurity threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) using current medical, scientific and public information and easily understood concepts.
ACRYNYMS
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); Emerging and re-emerging Infectious Disease (EID); Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC); United States of America (US); World Health Organization (WHO); World Health Organization Disease Outbreak Network (WHO DON)
DONATIONS
International Humanitarian Assistance for the DRC Ebola virus Crisis of 2019
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) –
The first website address is for donations specifically for DRC Ebola efforts. The second website is for general donations.
Donations:
(1) https://www.unicef.ie/donate/?c=730. – specifically for the DRC Ebola outbreak
(2) https://donate.unicefusa.org/page/contribute/support-unicefs-emergency-relief-programs-16087?_ga=2.205568915.183389163.1556133087-1972732260.1556133087.
(800) 367-5437 | 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - Doctors Without Borders USA, Inc.
Donations:
(1) Please call the (888) 392-0392 number to specify you want your donation to go to the DRC Ebola efforts or use the general donation website below.
(2) https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime-b.cfm?utm_expid=.OZRYu6o-TOaN6-M8xoRzVw.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.doctorswithoutborders.org%2F.
(888) 392-0392 | USA Headquarters, 40 Rector St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10006
Morning fog on the African river Sangha. Congo. Sergey Uryadnikov Photographer/ Shutterstock Photos.
Many emerging infectious diseases originate in tropical ecosystems. See About Page - Sangha River.
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