Congo preps for first wave of vaccination
KINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing to launch an Ebola vaccination programme in a bid to stop the latest outbreak of the dreaded fatal disease from spreading.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) put the death toll at 25, with three new cases in the country’s north-west confirmed by the country’s health minister in a statement on Saturday.
Alarm bells sounded last week after the outbreak, previously reported in a remote rural area of the country, notched up its first confirmed case in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million.
The first wave of immunisations will target healthcare staff in the north-west who have had direct or indirect contact with ill patients, the Congolese government said.
Among them are Hilaire Manzibe, a doctor at Wangata Reference Hospital in the city, who described how he treated a patient on May 1 who arrived from Bikoro, the epicentre of the current outbreak, with symptoms of fever and vomiting.
But the patient’s family refused treatment and instead returned home to administer traditional medicine – one of the largest obstacles in overcoming the last outbreak in 2014. More than a week later he returned, “the patient showed all the signs of the fever that has hit Bikoro,” Manzibe said.
An isolation ward was prepared, but he succumbed to the fever.
“The patient was in contact with our receptionists, went to the doctor for a consultation and then was in my hands,” explained nurse Julie Lobali, who will also receive a vaccination on Monday.
WHO has dispatched 35 immunisation experts, including 16 during the last deadly outbreak in West Africa which began in 2013.
Around 600 vaccinations are to be administered.