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 In an update on an outbreak that officials believe began in late
April, the United Nations health agency said there were two
confirmed and 18 suspected cases of Ebola infection.
Three people have died among the suspected and confirmed cases,
including a 39-year-old man thought to be the first, or so-called
"index" case.
Peter Salama, the WHO's executive director for health emergencies,
said the agency's risk assessment on the outbreak was that it is
high at a national level, medium at African regional level and low
at global level.
However, he added: "We cannot underestimate the logistic and
practical challenges associated with this response in a very remote
and insecure part of the country.
"As of now, we do not know the full extent of the outbreak, and as
we deploy teams over the next few weeks, we will begin to
understand... exactly what we're dealing with," Salama told
reporters on a telephone briefing.
He said the immediate priority would be to trace the around 400
recorded contacts of the suspected and confirmed cases.
This latest Ebola outbreak is Congo's eighth, the most of any
country. The deadly hemorrhagic fever was first detected in its
dense tropical forests in 1976 and named after the nearby river
Ebola.
The WHO said the outbreak is centred in the Likati Health Zone in
the remote province of Bas-Uele in northeastern Congo near the
border with Central African Republic.
Salama described the area, which is around 1400 kilometres from the
capital Kinshasa, as isolated and hard-to-reach, with virtually no
functioning telecommunications and few paved roads.
Asked about the potential for using an experimental vaccine, Salama
said the logistics were "complex" but that the WHO was working with
Congo's government and regulatory authorities.
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The vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV and developed by Merck, is not yet
licensed but was shown to be highly protective against Ebola in
clinical trials published last December.
To use the vaccine, Salama said the WHO would need a fully-approved
protocol signed off by regulators, the government and ethics
committees, as well as the logistics in place to gain informed
consent from all those offered it and to transport and store it at
the required minus 80 degrees Celsius.
"In an area without telecommunications, without road access, without
large-scale electrification, this is going to be an enormous
challenge," he said.
"But we are committed to working with... partner agencies to
implement a vaccination campaign if the (Congo) government gives us
a green light."
The three deaths so far are the "index" case - the man who fell sick
and sought medical care on April 22 - a motorcycle rider who took
him to hospital, and another person who cared for him en route.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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