Congo's Ebola outbreak remains out of control six months into the response, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said, with there being a disconnect between the resources available and what is actually reaching patients, communities, and medics.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said on Thursday that urgent action is needed to ensure resources are directed to where they are needed most, and that critical shortcomings were undermining efforts to contain the outbreak and save lives.
"Despite the vast amounts of money provided for the response, many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets," said Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, the president of MSF International."Our teams are often left speechless by the dysfunctions they witness in many areas. Six months into the response, this situation is simply unacceptable."
According to a Nov. 11 statement from Congo's National Institute of Public Health, there have been 11,114 confirmed cases and 5,433 deaths as a result of Ebola, representing a case fatality rate of 48.9 percent.
Some of the problems highlighted by MSF include that response staff are untrained and unpaid, ambulances do not have any fuel, and healthcare staff are left without the supplies or technical support they need to handle suspected cases.
"One of our greatest concerns is the persistent failure of the epidemiological surveillance system, a cornerstone of any Ebola response," the statement said. "Despite the resources officially allocated to this critical activity, surveillance remains deeply problematic, with entire areas poorly covered or even completely neglected."
The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo ebolavirus and was detected in mid-May in Congo, which has dealt with more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks in the past.
It has become the deadliest outbreak in Congo's history, surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic, in which 2,299 people died.
Across Africa, this epidemic is now second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected at least 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
MSF acknowledged that in the six months since the start of the outbreak, authorities in Congo and international partners have achieved some tangible results, including in the expansion of isolation and treatment units and diagnostic capability. However, the shortcomings "remain profound and largely unaddressed, despite being widely acknowledged," the statement said.
The Epoch Times contacted the government of Congo and the World Health Organization (WHO) for comment, but did not receive responses by the time of publication.
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