[U] Significantly Disconcerting Ebola News, Out Of Mbandaka, DRC: One New Viral Case, Inside A City Of 1.2 Million People

UPDATED @ 2 PM EDT -- in one rather hopeful sign here over lunch, the NYT is reporting this afternoon that the two cases inside the city are a pair of brothers who earlier attened a funeral in Bikoro -- thus making it likely that this is all one transmission chain, out of Bikoro, and not a separate (previously undetected line) originating inside the city of 1.2 million -- a city that is a river-port and transportation hub. That is good news. Still, this all could rapidly become an international pandemic, if every contact of every contact is not ring-vaccinated essentially immediately. [End, updated portion.]

This is not intended to unduly alarm people, but thus far -- in the main -- ebola outbreaks have been confined to remote rural areas, and small villages.

This May 2018 DRC outbreak may be regarded, as we look back some years from now, as a "game changer" -- in the words of Dr. Peter Salama, a WHO official presently leading the emergency response efforts.

You see, there is now a confirmed case of Ebola -- the highly contagious, ruthlessly lethal virus (more than half of those who contract it will die of it) -- inside a Congolese riverport city of over 1.2 million people. From the WHO update, of earlier this morning, local time:

. . . .One new case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) has been confirmed in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2 million people in Equateur Province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo. . . .

"This is a concerning development, but we now have better tools than ever before to combat Ebola," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO and our partners are taking decisive action to stop further spread of the virus. . . ."

It is true that WHO (thanks in no small part to the efforts of Merck, NewLink and the Public Health Agency of Canada governmental research labs) is in a much better state of preparedness.

Specifically, we do have Merck's rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP vaccine stock available, at the ready for overnight flight shipping -- but this could get seriously out of hand -- and quite rapidly so. Keep a good thought -- that Trump's karmic deficits don't cause significant loss of life, and any more suffering inside Mbandaka, Wangata, DRC. Onward, now. . . on, to the morning trains.

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