And that, in turn, portends a very alarming fall — for the sick, and dying — primarily in and around Ituri Province, DRC. Models developed by the African CDC predict the deaths will be over 1,400 by September — and the sickness levels will approach 8,500 cases. [The “unconfirmed” totals will be much higher — as entire areas will not have been adequately triaged, for the spread of the disease.]
Without USAID on the ground — it is simply not possible to turn health facilities into enforced stay / prisons — and traditional healers are still telling the afflicted that they may go home — and that they might cure it — with prayers, alone. That is effectively gasoline, on an already raging bonfire. Here’s the latest from the UK Guardian, reporting overnight:
…The whereabouts of almost 300 people who have tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is unknown, according to Africa’s top public health official.
The humanitarian crisis amid the conflict in the affected areas means more than 1 million people are living in camps to which health workers have no access, Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Thursday.
His comments came as projections from the World Health Organization’s Africa regional office, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, predicted there will be about 8,210 cases and 1,420 deaths by mid-September….
The 300 may also be largely migrants — miners or sex workers that follow them — and thus may spread widely in DRC and into Uganda now. That is very very chilling — as potentials for epidemics go. Yikes. And still no approved vaccine for this Bundibugyo strain. Out.
नमस्ते
Powerline Lies... 