Ebola Has Been Knocked Off The Front Pages...

. . .The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decrease in global news coverage of a longer-lasting, but equally tragic viral outbreak. In the past six years alone, there have been four large viral outbreaks inside Democratic Republic of The Congo. Overall, this most recent one is the eleventh in Africa since the virus was first definitively identified in the early 1980s.

As this WHO release indicates, the complexity of arresting Ebola is now amplified by two concurrent other viral outbreaks -- measles, and COVID-19 are both on the rise in the DRC. Here is the latest from a local paper:

. . . .The Ebola virus has so far affected some 92 people in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Equateur province, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

In a recent update on the 11th Ebola outbreak in Mbandaka, Equateu, WHO Africa announced that 96 cases, 92 confirmed and four probable, were recorded as of Aug. 19, with 42 deaths and 37 recoveries.

In its Health Emergencies Bulletin earlier this week, WHO Africa said Ebola in the country’s Equateur province continues to be of grave concern, given its continuing rise and geographical spread.

The outbreak is further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a long-standing measles outbreak, and a complex humanitarian crisis in the country. . . .

While there is a vaccine, in the cases of Ebola and measles, the trick is getting it into the local resource chain, at the point of inflection. We must not forget that "we are the keepers" of each of our fellow human's chances for survival -- in the land of life sciences. That is why I entered the field -- and it is why I still follow it. Onward, with a sad smile, now. . . .

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