The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently activated its Emergency Operational Centre in response to the recently-declared Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in order to develop a concept of operations for the emergency.
Nine confirmed cases of EVD have appeared since late April in the DRC’s Likati health zone, a remote region in the northern portion of the country, which resulted in three reported deaths. An additional five samples were tested by the DRC’s Ministry of Health, one of which tested positive for EVD’s Zaire subtype.
“The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its Emergency Operation Centre to closely monitor the situation,” John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said. “A team of experts is on standby for deployment to respond to the emergency based on the needs on the ground as we work on the modalities with the government authorities in the DRC and coordinate with the [World Health Organization] and partners.”
In addition to the Africa CDC’s actions, the DRC recently reactivated its inter-agency national committee against Ebola which is currently meeting on a daily basis to formulate various response initiatives, strengthen surveillance mechanisms, and conduct contact tracing.
This is the ninth such outbreak to appear in the DRC since 1976. Three years ago, an outbreak caused a total of 66 infections and 49 deaths in the country’s Equator Province. In 2012, 36 cases of EVD were reported, which caused 13 deaths in the DRC’s Orientale Province. Thirty-two cases appeared between 2008-2009, causing an estimated 15 deaths in Kasai. More severely, a 2007 outbreak caused 264 cases of EVD, resulting in 187 deaths.