DRC Red cross buries victim of ebola to prevent spread of contagious viral disease

A victim of the ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been buried by the Red Cross. The society says this was to prevent further spread of the contagious viral disease. Dr. Pierre Formenty, is team leader for viral haemorrhagic fevers at the World Health Organization.

‘‘With Ebola, when people die, they are very contagious. So it’s a place where we have a lot of infections. It is therefore important to have safe burials because it reduces the risk of human-to-human transmission, but it is also important to have dignified burials’‘, Dr. Formenty said.

The World Health Organization on Friday said, the outbreak is not yet an international emergency. The virus was reported in an urban area in DR Congo.

The WHO believes that the situation can be brought under control due to measures taken and a planned vaccination campaign to begin on Sunday.

By Saturday, there will be about 7,500 doses of this experimental vaccine on site and the WHO still has a reserve of about 1,500 doses.

The WHO hopes to vaccinate between 8,000 and 10,000 people initially, said director of the WHO Emergency Management Program, Peter Salama.

The UN agency has requested $ 26 million to deal with the crisis in the next three months.

The most violent Ebola epidemic in history hit West Africa between the end of 2013 and 2016, causing more than 11,300 deaths in some 29,000 cases with more than 99% in Guinea, Liberia and in Sierra Leone. At the time, the WHO was strongly criticized for the slow response.

AFP