DRC Ebola Outbreak May Soon Threaten Children in Region

The deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is continuing to spread with a spike in child infections an increasingly likely scenario in the days ahead, UN agencies said on Friday.

“Every day, cases are being identified in new health zones. And that reflects really the scale of this outbreak, a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected and the high mobility of the population in this part of the DRC,” said Dr Olivier le Polain, who heads up epidemiology and analytics at the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the approximately three weeks since the fast-moving outbreak was confirmed, the DRC health authorities have reported 676 cases and 136 deaths from the rare and deadly Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus.

Infections have been identified in a zone spanning from Aru in the north of Ituri province to Miti Murhesa in South Kivu, some 620 miles. “And we have 34 health zones affected as of yesterday, so, those health zones [with Ebola] continue to expand, with new areas in North Kivu which also reported [cases] yesterday,” Dr le Polain told journalists in Geneva, via videolink from Beni.

Those leading the response stressed that many youngsters in the region are malnourished and unvaccinated against preventable illness. This means that they are extremely vulnerable to disease in the resource-rich region where a humanitarian crisis is already playing out, caused by decades of fighting between government forces and armed militia.

To date, most infections have been among adults going about their daily lives, “but as the outbreak evolves, we must be prepared for increasing household transmission which means we may see more children affected in the days ahead”, warned Dr Douglas Noble, UNICEF Global Lead for Public Health Emergencies and Global Incident Manager for Ebola.

“These are already very vulnerable children, so the capacity for this community to absorb any additional stressors was already stretched to breaking point,” he said, noting that more than half of children under five in Ituri province are “chronically malnourished”.

Many of the children are unvaccinated against most diseases, including deadly ones such as diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

Officials are keeping schools open even as the outbreak spreads. Vaccines for the new type are not available, and funding is needed to develop new vaccines and treatment for the new Ebola variant.