In total, only eight patients were identified for 489 contact cases followed by response teams on “573 contacts identified” from early October to early November, explains Dr Michel Kasereka, chief medical officer of the Beni health zone, in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). One thousand doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV anti-Ebola vaccine delivered to the area five days after the appearance of the first case made it possible to interrupt the chain of transmission, playing the role of “protective firewall around cases” recorded, explains an expert from the national control committee, which coordinates response activities in the field on a daily basis.
The same strategy had been tested against the previous Ebola epidemic in Beni between February and May, during which hundreds of people had been vaccinated and only 12 cases recorded, including six deaths. A success, compared to the strongest outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which infected 3,470 people and killed 2,287 between August 2018 and June 2020.
And according to this expert, who requested anonymity, “large-scale propagation is no longer to be feared (because) many people are immune to Ebola thanks to recent vaccination campaigns in the area “, even if it will take several weeks “to draw definitive conclusions”.
The vaccine was able to contain the disease to just eight contaminations and new drugs have saved two lives by curing two patients. Of the eight confirmed patients, the six deaths are those of children who have not been taken “on time” in Ebola Treatment Centers (CTE).
Half of #Ebola cases in DR Congo are children. @Unicef and partners are on the ground providing support but more funds are urgently required to help save lives and contain the outbreak. https://t.co/UuCIkT9ndd
– UNICEF in DRC (@UNICEFDRC) November 3, 2021
(Translation: “Half of Ebola cases are children. Unicef and its partners are on the ground to provide aid, but we urgently need more money to save lives and contain the epidemic.”)
“Me and my wife were being treated with pills, injections and infusions. We didn’t know we were being treated for Ebola virus disease.”, testifies the husband of the couple having healed. “If we had known, our child would not have died”, explains in tears this man, father of the first recorded case, a one year old baby who succumbed.
Two treatments, approved at the end of 2020 by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), allowed him and his wife to heal : REGN-EB3, a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies, and mAb114, a monoclonal antibody marketed under the Ebanga brand.
Already used in the previous outbreak, these two treatments were considered 90% effective by the World Health Organization (WHO). “When a person arrives at an Ebola treatment center on time, survival is guaranteed. These are real miraculous molecules against Ebola virus disease.”, says the expert in charge of the fight against this disease in the DRC.
In Béni, however, the population does not understand why, during this 13th epidemic declared on October 8, no hand washing device was visible at the entrances to the city, as was the case previously. Nor why no temperature readings, or awareness campaigns were carried out.
“We are not yet at the end of the tunnel. We must make sure that no one has escaped our investigation.”, continues Dr Kasereka. “If this happens, it must be isolated quickly, samples must be taken and if the contamination is confirmed, it should benefit from a specific treatment that already exists and whose effectiveness has been demonstrated.”