The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa says pop-up vaccination sites are being rapidly set up in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to vaccinate contacts of Ebola deaths.
The UN’s health agency said on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO on Monday, that the sites were set up to vaccinate contacts linked to recent Ebola deaths in the area.
It said: “WHO and partners are working together to overcome resistance and break the chain of transmission within the community.’’
WHO had on Friday confirmed a new case of Ebola virus in the city of Beni in DRC, after 52 days of not recording a case in the country.
“While not welcome news, this is an event we anticipated.
“We kept response teams in Beni and other high risk areas for precisely this reason,” said Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in a statement posted the agency’s website.
As part of the active Ebola surveillance system in place to respond to this ongoing outbreak in DRC, thousands of alerts are still being investigated every day.
An alert is a person who has symptoms that could be due to Ebola or any death in a high risk area that could have been as result of Ebola.
As with all confirmed cases, efforts are already underway to find everyone who may have been in contact with the person in order to offer them the vaccine and monitor their health status.
“WHO has worked side by side with health responders from the DRC for over 18 months and our teams are right now supporting the investigation into this latest case.
“Although the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic adds challenges, we will continue this joint effort until we can declare the end of this Ebola outbreak together,’’ said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO, Regional Director for Africa.
The news of the confirmed case came minutes after the conclusion of a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola in DRC.
The Emergency Committee will reconvene this week in order to re-evaluate their recommendations in light of this new information.
Prior to this, the last person who was confirmed to have Ebola in DRC tested negative twice and was discharged from a treatment centre on March 3, 2020.
As of April 10, 2020, 3,456 confirmed and probable cases and 2,276 deaths have occurred as a result of the outbreak.
