Since early May the World Health Organization and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working to contain the spread of this rare and virulent strain
Beginning in early May, healthcare workers and medical scientists noticed a new outbreak of a suspected rare strain of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Ebola was first detected a half century ago in the-then Zaire, now the DRC, as a potentially deadly disease with an extremely high mortality rate.
Since 1976, several waves of EVD have erupted in Central, East and West Africa. Between late 2013 and early 2015, over 11,000 people died in the West African states of Guinea-Conakry, Liberia and Sierra Leone in what has been so far the worst outbreak of the disease.
By the end of May, it has been reported that over 200 deaths have occurred in the latest outbreak of EVD, which is one of the most dangerous of a number of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHF). Other similar VHFs include Marburg and Lassa Fevers.
Due to the continuing conflicts in the Eastern DRC, the capacity of the healthcare sector in the region is hampered by the fighting between the government’s military forces and rebel organizations. Although the United States President Donald Trump through his Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that they had ended the war between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel grouping and the Congolese defense forces, fighting is continuing.
This purported peace agreement brokered by the State Department was ostensibly based upon access by U.S.-based firms to strategic minerals so abundant in the DRC. Yet, transnational corporations including those based in the U.S. have long exploited the natural resources and labor of the Congolese people.
Despite the wealth of the DRC in regard to valuable minerals and metals, the overwhelming majority of the people remain impoverished. As a former Belgian colony, since its independence in 1960, the system of neo-colonialism has encapsulated the DRC. It is impossible to separate the level of socioeconomic underdevelopment from the recurrent outbreaks of infectious diseases and the inability to effectively respond through the existing emergency services.
Even though the United Nations has peacekeeping forces in the Eastern DRC totaling more than 13,000 soldiers and police, the fighting and instability have continued. The UN Security Council has extended the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Mission to Congo (MONUSCO) until December 2026, although the ability to halt the war and restore some form of normalcy remains elusive.
In specific regard to the latest EVD outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO)says of the current situation:
Source: Global Research
