AMERICANALMANAC (Ken Jacobs) - Congo's Ebola surveillance system buckles as outbreak kills faster than any on record
More than 2,200 people have died in Congo's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and health officials say the virus is outrunning the contact-tracing teams meant to contain it. Between 60 and 70 percent of new Ebola cases in eastern Congo are turning up among people no one was watching, individuals never identified as contacts of […] The post Congo's Ebola surveillance system buckles as outbreak kills faster than any on record appeared first on American Almanac .
More than 2,200 people have died in Congo's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and health officials say the virus is outrunning the contact-tracing teams meant to contain it. Between 60 and 70 percent of new Ebola cases in eastern Congo are turning up among people no one was watching, individuals never identified as contacts of known patients, never monitored, never flagged. That figure, reported by the Associated Press from the ground in Nizi, one of the hardest-hit health zones in Ituri province, amounts to a confession: the surveillance architecture that is supposed to be the backbone of any Ebola response has collapsed under the weight of insecurity, unpaid workers, impassable roads, and a virus that moves faster than the…Open
AI:The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing a catastrophic collapse of its public health infrastructure as an unprecedented Ebola outbreak reaches over 2,200 deaths in record time. The virus is outstripping containment efforts, with 60 to 70 percent of new cases occurring among individuals entirely missed by contact-tracing teams due to a broken surveillance system. Frontline workers are struggling without pay for months and are forced to purchase their own disinfectant, while the government cites payroll verification issues as the reason for delayed salaries. The crisis is being exacerbated by intense insecurity in eastern Congo, where rebel groups with ties to the Islamic State operate amidst displaced populations, making it nearly…Open
