The epidemiological situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached critical levels. The Ebola outbreak, which affects a territorial area larger than the surface of France, is recording exponential growth that is jeopardizing humanitarian efforts in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Julien Harneis, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ebola, reported that the speed of the spread is alarming: 2,500 deaths have been reported in the last three months, highlighting that half of these deaths occurred during the last twenty days. The impact on health personnel has been devastating, with 160 health workers infected and 63 of them losing their lives while performing their duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIf the decision is made to invest now, to allocate more personnel and bring more resources to remote areas in the east of the DRC, in months we could slow down the transmission of the virus until it stops.<\/p>\nJulien Harneis, UN Humanitarian Coordinator<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Logistical and financial obstacles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The fight against this epidemic faces multifaceted challenges on the ground. Harneis detailed that the health response is hindered by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Constant armed conflicts in the region.<\/li>
- Recurrent attacks on facilities, vehicles, and medical brigades; in July alone, half of the recorded aggressions were directed against response personnel.<\/li>
- Serious deficiencies in road infrastructure that hinder access to the most affected areas.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Added to these problems is an unprecedented liquidity crisis. Due to the suspension of commercial flights between Kinshasa and Bunia \u2014ordered by the government at the start of the outbreak\u2014, the flow of cash to local banks has disappeared. Given that mobile connectivity is insufficient to implement digital payments, thousands of health and community workers are not receiving their salaries, creating a climate of frustration and demotivation on the front lines of the fight against the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Alofoke Deportes, we will continue to monitor the development of this health emergency, in light of the warning from international organizations regarding the imminent risk that the epidemic could spread to neighboring nations if resources and investment are not increased immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Health crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ebola is spreading exponentially The epidemiological situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached critical levels. The Ebola outbreak, which affects a territorial area larger than the surface of France, is recording exponential growth that is jeopardizing humanitarian efforts in the region. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12809],"tags":[13904,13789,13790,13],"class_list":{"0":"post-140355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","9":"tag-ebola","10":"tag-epidemic","11":"tag-health"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}