Ebola spread in DR Congo 'deeply alarming', MSF warns

Posted by Ok-Web-2657@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 19 comments

"Two weeks after the declaration of the Ebola disease outbreak in Ituri Province, the situation is deeply alarming," Gonzalez said in a statement on Saturday.

"Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration," he said, stressing his teams on the ground were "witnessing a response that has not yet caught up to the rapid spread of the epidemic".

"The reality today is that nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak. New suspected cases are being reported daily, yet hundreds of samples remain untested."

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arestdyjh@reddit

They're trying to play for cash since USAID's gone. It's a bit more complex then what we're seeing which is annoying. Odds of this being a real problem in first world countries are basically nothing- they need to keep the pop indoors through the summer though because riots. (even though a lot of the riot framework's been taken out) but fear of a virus is less impactful on the pop then a real virus. Annoying.

Really, who's buying this. The Congo's famously self-genocidal.

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adoradear@reddit

Yes, most countries famously play for cash by….allowing their citizens to die of a horrendous disease. Oh wait, your country probably comes the closest to fitting that profile, congratulations!

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

9 hour old account simping for MAGA. 🤣

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helper_robot@reddit

Burying the lede a bit:

“The current outbreak, a rare strain of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected.”

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Daxx22@reddit

Yes, but its successful is also its failing.

It's too lethal too quickly and requires direct contact, so its really hard to spread outside of these low trust/education areas with funeral customs that require being with/touching the deceased.

Its a humanitarian disaster where it is, but thats about it.

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WarrantinaVoid@reddit

For now. Allowing it to spread (even in a contained region) gives it more opportunity to mutate into a less immediately lethal, longer incubation period illness. Same thing we saw happen with the omicron variant of COVID

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Cultural-Company282@reddit

Ebola and covid aren't really comparable in this regard. The mutation rate for covid is orders of magnitude higher, and the nature of ebola's genome means that most mutations end up being harmful to the virus. Thus, ebola's genome is highly stable over time, unlike covid. On top of that, the smaller R-0 means that Ebola has fewer opportunities to mutate into a more problematic strain.

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WarrantinaVoid@reddit

Rate of mutation can also change due to a mutation. Its current rate of mutation may be low, but a mutation can change that.

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vlntly_peaceful@reddit

Technically correct but still fearmongering. The dangerous part of COVID is the droplet infection and the similarity to common illnesses like the cold. Ebola has a wildly different symptom profile and is only contagious through body fluids.

So as long as you stay away from anyone who can't stop throwing up violently, you're good. It's also treatable as long as you don't burn down your medical facilities.

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WarrantinaVoid@reddit

I didn't say it was a major risk, just a possibility of allowing it to use the human population as a petri dish indefinitely

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Ok-Web-2657@reddit (OP)

Sorry I posted this at like 1am and I was only half awake.

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IrishSnow23@reddit

Maybe half of Congress can go pay a visit...

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

We can do far better than half.

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cyanescens_burn@reddit

Were their USAID or other public health programs that might have caught this sooner, and/or addressed it sooner or more effectively, but got DOGE’d?

I can’t help but wonder.

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No_Possible_7108@reddit

I can answer that for ya, the people working to stop the breakout have already said that their response has been hindered quite a lot due to lack of assistance from USAid. That program is how they had been so successful at containing previous outbreaks quickly.

Trump 2.0 is going for pandemic 2.0

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