Congo's Ebola death count just crossed a line nobody wanted to reach, and the people who are supposed to stop it are working without pay. If you're just joining us: Congo declared this outbreak on May 15. It's caused by the Bundibugyo virus, and there's no approved vaccine or treatment for it. Ituri province has been the epicenter, and North Kivu's a growing hotspot. By late September, confirmed cases had passed 8,000. WHO reported more than 1,600 treatment beds across 50 centres, and violence around the displacement camps near Bunia keeps disrupting the response. This is Ebola Watch. A treatment center burned to the ground, and a world that still can't agree to get ready for the next one. So, who's actually showing up? Cera, start with the fire. News4Jax writes:
BUNIA – Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people, authorities said, as they struggle to contain what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. The latest figures released by the Health Ministry on Thursday showed that 4,018 people have died among 8,300 cases recorded since the outbreak was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.
Four thousand eighteen dead among 8,300 cases, per the Health Ministry's Thursday count. And the headline right next to that number? A burned treatment center. There's also a new detail on the Kigonze camp transit-centre fire near Bunia we covered yesterday: AP's UN source says soldiers set it while searching for weapons. Soldiers. Count first. The ministry's September 29 figures were 8,224 cases and 3,982 deaths, so that's 76 more cases and 36 more deaths in roughly two days. The ministry calls these cases recorded, so that's what I'll call them. Four thousand is a milestone, but the count runs behind the virus. MSF says North Kivu alone accounts for 40% of new confirmed cases since the end of August. Okay, but 'fastest-growing in history.' If I'm not in Ituri or North Kivu, does that phrase change anything for me? And honestly, the mistrust story isn't a side plot anymore. If people in uniform are setting fires, why would a family walk into a center? For most listeners, it's about speed in one region. It doesn't put the risk at your door. And careful, from what's in front of me I can't tell you the camp fire and the burned center are the same building. Either way, this is the Bundibugyo strain, with no approved vaccine and no approved treatment, per News4Jax. Beds and supportive care are the whole toolkit. Lose the beds, lose the trust, and there's nothing left to hand out. Here's Sharmila Devi at Tomorrow's Affairs:
Washington’s response to the UN declaration and absence from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is negotiating a treaty on global pandemic preparedness, means the world is failing to unite to prevent and get ready for the next health emergency. “Agreeing to collaborate to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics should not be controversial,” said Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
This piece opens by saying that, luckily for the rest of the world, Ebola's stayed regional. Lucky for who? Four thousand people in Ituri and North Kivu would like a word. It's mostly about diplomacy. Last week the US rejected a UN declaration on pandemic collaboration, and it's sitting out the WHO treaty talks. That dispute's a week old, and the piece's outbreak figures date to September 28, so treat it as backdrop. Backdrop, sure, but what does it change? Helen Clark's basically saying agreeing to work together shouldn't be a fight. And yet here we are. Does a stalled pledge in New York actually touch a clinic in Bunia? Slowly, yeah. A solidarity pledge is a promise about who gets vaccines, trial supplies and money, and how fast. When it stalls, all that queues up in Geneva while Butembo waits. And remember, this is Bundibugyo virus. WHO puts past outbreaks at thirty percent fatality in Uganda in 2007 and fifty in Congo in 2012. We're near the top of that range, so slow access costs lives. If you're finding Ebola Watch useful, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you're listening. Reviews help other people find the show, and they help us keep bringing you these updates.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so check out the ones that caught your attention. That's Ebola Watch for today. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next episode. This is a Lantern Podcast.