The CDC has raised its Ebola response to its highest response level, signaling that the Ebola response is going to be a top priority for the agency.
Raising the response to level 1 activation “reflects the urgency, scale, and complexity of the outbreak, and allows CDC to bring additional resources to support the coordination and operational needs of our response,” Satish Pillai, PhD, the CDC’s Ebola response incidence manager, said in a June 26 news briefing.
Here are six updates.
1. The CDC currently has about 100 staff members deployed domestically and internationally for the Ebola response, including 24 members permanently in Congo and nearly 100 in Uganda.
“We are very concerned about the trajectory of cases, which are rising rapidly, as well as the continued geographic spread,” Dr. Pillai said. He said risk to the U.S. remains low.
2. The Democratic Republic of Congo said confirmed Ebola cases have reached 1,274, including 360 deaths.
3. The World Health Organization has now projected that this outbreak will have more than 8,000 cases and 1,400 deaths by mid-September, Africa News reported. There is also a 70% chance of Ebola spreading to South Sudan.
4. WHO released updated clinical management guidelines for filovirus disease, which apply to all types of Ebola and Marburg viruses.
5. In Congo, almost 300 people who tested positive for Ebola are unaccounted for, the Africa CDC said. Their unknown whereabouts have raised concerns about gaps in tracking and virus spread.
6. Last month, 30 federal health service workers gathered in preparation to travel to Africa and care for Americans exposed to the Ebola outbreak. They expected the three day training to be dedicated to simulations on how to safely interact with an Ebola patient, but participants told Bloomberg that only 90 minutes was dedicated to a full simulation. The rest was spent on administrative paperwork. They described the training as “shambolic and hurried effort under intense pressure from Washington,” Bloomberg said. Many of the participants have limited or no experience in outbreak response. However, Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, told Bloomberg that the participants include physicians, nurses and engineers who each “completed specialized mission-specific training. Claims that U.S. Public Health Service officers were deployed without adequate preparation are simply false. These officers dedicate their careers to protecting the health of our nation, and their safety remains a top priority.”
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