Ebola response in DRC: Stuck in first gear
November 17th, 2018“…..Dr. Pierre Rollin is an expert on Ebola with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…..Rollin has been visiting for more than 20 years to respond to periodic Ebola outbreaks. And he says there’s a pattern to these eruptions.
“Usually you have one or two months before you detect it,” explains Rollin. By then enough cases start cropping up that one of them reaches a health worker who recognizes that it might be Ebola and orders up a test.
As soon as the case is identified as Ebola, response teams flood into the outbreak zone. They isolate those who are already sick and identify anyone who has had contact with them — and any contacts of those contacts – so they can be monitored and, if necessary, isolated in turn. Within a short time the outbreak is quashed. “Three, four months maximum,” says Rollin.
But that’s how long the current outbreak has been spreading through DRC. And Rollin says by many measures this time around it’s as if they’re stuck at square one.
“It’s as if we’re just starting now when in fact we started three months ago,” says Rollin. “We’re not making any progress.”…..”