Congo’s Ebola epidemic is expected to continue spreading though the country’s east, where it has killed 1,000 since August and sparked mistrust and frequent attacks on medical centers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The WHO plans to expand vaccination in that part of Democratic Republic of Congo in coming weeks once a new treatment by Johnson & Johnson is approved. It is already using another experimental vaccine made by Merck .

Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said vaccine supplies were plentiful, but accessing target communities to administer them and treat patients was being hampered by hostility towards medical staff.

Security incidents continued to plague efforts to halt the outbreak, with 119 documented attacks since January, he said.

As a result, “we are anticipating a scenario of continued intense transmission,” Ryan told a news briefing.

“We haven’t exceeded the 1,000 (deaths) as of this morning but we will likely exceed that today when we see the numbers later this evening… You want to use every tool in the box.”

The Merck vaccine will still be used in ‘ring vaccination’ of people exposed to the virus and their contacts, he said. But WHO was also studying use of a single dose to stretch supplies, an option experts would review on Monday.

More than 100,000 people have been vaccinated so far, and the treatment has been highly effective, WHO says.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be deployed outside the rings in surrounding areas to protect people from infection, “as a way of laying down a barrier to the virus”, Ryan said.

Militiamen attacked a hospital treating Ebola patients two weeks ago, killing a senior WHO epidemiologist and wounding two others, officials said at the time.

The attacks curtail humanitarian access, slowing efforts to vaccinate more than 900 people a day as well as daily checks on some 12,000 people potentially exposed to the virus, Ryan said.

“We still face major issues of community acceptance and trust,” he said.

There was an attempted assault on an Ebola treatment facility in Butembo on Thursday, he said, adding that nobody was injured and the assailants were captured.

(Source: Reuters)

The killing of a Cameroonian doctor is a chilling reminder of the difficulties health workers face as they combat the Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization (WHO), was killed in an attack on Apr. 19 at the university hospital in Butembo in DRC’s North Kivu Province. Two others were injured. His body was flown back home to Cameroon where he is survived by a wife and four young children the WHO said.

WHO’s director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the attack as “extremely heartbreaking” and said his office was assessing security arrangements for its staff and patients.

“The death of Dr Mouzoko also underscores that when health workers are targeted and attacked, it has huge ripple effects that are felt by the people they served, the communities in need, and of course their loved ones, friends and co-workers. It’s a loss for everyone, everywhere” – Dr Tedros said on Twitter.

The outbreak in DR Congo is the second largest and second deadliest Ebola outbreak the world has ever experienced and it is DR Congo’s ninth outbreak since 1976 when the disease was first discovered there. In its latest update on the outbreak, the WHO said: “As of 16 April, a total of 1290 confirmed and probable Ebola viral disease cases have been reported, of which 833 died (case fatality rate 65%).”

This is not the first time health workers have been attacked in the volatile northeast of DR Congo, near its borders with Rwanda and Uganda and where for years the government has been unsuccessful at countering rebel activities.

In February, two separate attacks on Ebola treatment centers forced the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders to evacuate staff and suspended medical services in the epicenter of the outbreak, Butembo and Katwa.

In March, an attack on another treatment center killed a police officer and injured others. Shortly after the attack that killed Dr Mouzoko, there was another attack on a treatment facility in which one assailant was killed and four others were captured.

Violent attacks in North Kivu province, is disrupting outreach efforts by medical teams to treat confirmed and probable cases of Ebola and affecting their ability to reach individuals at risk of the disease by virtue of coming into contact with an infected person.

Mass vaccination has helped to prevent more infections and death according to a preliminary report on the efficacy of the trial vaccine released earlier this month. Of the 93,965 at-risk people who consented to vaccination, 71 cases were confirmed and nine deaths occured. There have been no deaths recorded in vaccinated people who showed symptoms more than 10 days after the trial vaccine was administered.

Source: Quartz Africa

Cameroon customs seized tonnes of smuggled drugs and fuel in the economic capital, Douala, late Sunday in its latest move to curb the inflow of “overseas dangerous and illicit” drugs and goods into the country, customs officials said in a statement Monday.

According to the customs, the drugs including 100,051 tramadol pills, 100,072 combiart tablets and 7,000 liters of fuel were seized in an operation that involved Cameroon Marine and Cameroon customs brigade in charge of combating illicit trade.

The illicit goods were smuggled from a neighboring country through Cameroon’s seaport in Tiko locality and then transported to Douala in a “heavy duty truck”, the officials, said adding that the suspects have been remanded in custody.

According to Cameroon police, tramadol is one of the most abused substances in the country and is making its way into schoolyards.

“There is growing addition to the pills which are readily available on black market. The opioid is also known to be used by terrorists in the country to boost courage and commit atrocities. It is also widely used by students. So we are doing all we can to put an end to this malaise,” a police officer, Emmanuel Watat revealed.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon health minister, inked April 4 a decision setting terms for accessing & monitoring HIV testing services and population care in public health facilities.

According to the document, the rapid HIV screenings will be free of charge as of January 1st, 2020. Other free services are also planned for people living with the virus. These are medical and prenatal consultations including booklets, medical records, biological follow-up examinations (CD4 and viral load), early HIV testing for children, antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and drugs to prevent opportunistic infections and others.

The official points out that reagents and medicines for all the above-mentioned examinations and services, in accordance with the national guidelines in force, are provided free of charge to health facilities and laboratories selected under the program. “Failure to comply with this decision or the application of informal costs to the services mentioned above will be subject to sanctions,” warns the department.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon recorded a decline in number of HIV/AIDS infections in the last seven years, according to Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda.

Prevalence rate fell from 4.3 percent in 2011 to 3.4 percent in 2018 due to increase in financing and the “massive scale-up” of sensitization, prevention and treatment measures, Manaouda said on Wednesday.

The figures were made public during an evaluation meeting of the National Aids Control Committee held in the capital, Yaounde.

According to the committee, in terms of absolute numbers, over 500,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Cameroon and new infections are common among youths between 15 and 24 years, young girls are hit hardest.

Sixteen thousand newborn babies from infected mothers were taken care of in 2018, statistics from the committee indicated.

As part of measures to reduce new infections by the year 2022, Cameroon has announced it will conduct monthly campaign on behavioral change, increase intensive care and test over 2 million people, especially women.

Source: Xinhuanet

Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak is spreading at its fastest rate yet, eight months after it was first detected, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

Each of the past two weeks has registered a record number of new cases, marking a sharp setback for efforts to respond to the second biggest outbreak ever, as militia violence and community resistance have impeded access to affected areas.

Less than three weeks ago, the WHO said the outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever was largely contained and could be stopped by September, noting that weekly case numbers had halved from earlier in the year to about 25.

But the number of cases hit a record 57 the following week, and then jumped to 72 last week, said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. Previous spikes of around 50 cases per week were documented in late January and mid-November.

Deaths occur outside treatment centers

More alarmingly, about three-quarters of Ebola deaths last week occurred outside of treatment centers, according to Congo health ministry data, meaning there is a much greater chance they transmitted the virus to those around them.

“People are becoming infected without access to response measures,” Lindmeier told Reuters.

The current outbreak is believed to have killed 676 people and infected 406 others. Another 331 patients have recovered.

In the past two months, five Ebola centers have been attacked, some by armed militiamen. That led French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to suspend its activities in two of the most affected areas.

Another challenge has been a mistrust of first responders. A survey conducted last September by medical journal The Lancet found that a quarter of people sampled in two Ebola hotspots did not believe the disease was real.

New outreach program

Lindmeier said new approaches to community outreach were showing signs of progress and that some previously hostile local residents had recently agreed to grant health workers access.

One treatment center that closed in February after being torched by unknown assailants reopened last week.

More than 11,000 people died in West Africa’s 2013-16 Ebola outbreak. Since then, health authorities have worked to speed up their responses and deployed an experimental vaccine and treatments, both of which have been considered effective.

Source: Reuters

Kenya’s pharmacy and poisons regulator on Friday destroyed packs of condoms deemed to be unsafe for public use. The product is said to have failed quality tests prompting a recall.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board said its drug inspectors supervised the destruction of the Fiesta condoms valued at 10 million Kenyan shillings (which comes up to over $100,000). The incarceration took place at the facility located in Athi River, a town located outside the capital Nairobi.

The authorized market dealers of the product were listed as Deep Kumar Tyagi Healthcare International Limited. Apparently, the board had ordered a recall of all the affected consignments.

“The recall of the affected batches of the fiesta condoms was concluded on 11th March, 2019 upon which Pharmacy and Poisons Board Kenya directed the market authorization holder to carry out destruction of the recalled consignment under PPB supervision,” they said in a tweet.

Workers in protective are seek unpacking the products and hurling them into a fire place. The Board has meanwhile urged vigilance on the part of the public to identify any sub-standard health products on the market.

Reports indicate that it is not the first time such an incident is taking place. In 2018, the Health Ministry did order a recall of some condom brands on the same grounds.

The Fiesta Stamina and Fiesta Big Black products were said to have failed thickness tests in November 2018 hence the recall.

Source: Africa News