Italy activates Ebola surveillance protocol after hospitalizing two travelers with symptoms

BarcelonaItaly activated this Monday the health surveillance protocol for the Ebola outbreak declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo after two people with symptoms from Uganda were hospitalized in the country.the Ebola outbreak declared in the Democratic Republic of CongoMedical personnel will subject the two patients to diagnostic tests – as provided for in national and international protocols – while their families are under preventive health surveillance, according to the ministry, which states that clinical evaluations are being carried out on other travelers from Uganda "as a precaution" in highly specialized hospitals.

However, the Italian government wanted to send a message of reassurance to the public. Through a statement, it assured that the national system for the prevention and response to infectious emergencies is "fully operational" and that the risk in the country "remains very low".

"The epidemic is overwhelming us"

The alert in Italy coincides with Uganda's confirmation of two new Ebola cases, bringing the total number of detected infections in the country to seven. Since May 15, when the outbreak was declared in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the extent and speed with which it has grown has caused so much concern that, for the first time in history, the WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom, has declared an international health emergency before convening an emergency committee to study the situation. international health emergency before convening an emergency committee to study the situation.

Adhanom himself raised the death toll of suspected deaths to 220 and suspected cases to more than 900 this Monday. With these figures in hand, the WHO Director-General lamented that the virus's spread rate is outpacing efforts to contain it: "We are trying to catch up with an epidemic that is spreading very rapidly. We are urgently scaling up operations, but so far the epidemic is outpacing us," he acknowledged. From a meeting of the African Union, he called on neighboring countries to take measures.

The factors that suggest cases will continue to increase are diverse. On the one hand, Adhanom pointed to the brutality of the conflict in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, both in the east of the DRC, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. On the other hand, the local population's distrust of foreign health authorities is compounded by the lack of approved vaccines and treatments for this variety, Bundibugyo, which has a fatality rate of between 30% and 50%.