This past summer the the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began experiencing its 10th Ebola outbreak. (The virus, with a mean mortality rate of 50 percent, is endemic in that country.) To date, the current outbreak has claimed approximately 400 lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the outbreak to persist for another six months, in part, because current political turmoil in the DRC is effecting the ability of health officials to contain the spread of the disease to neighboring Rwanda, the South Sudan and Uganda. Listeners may recall the last Ebola outbreak in 2014-2016 in West Africa infected over 28,000 and killing over 11,000. While vaccines are in development and currently in use in the Congo there is currently no approved or licensed vaccine.
During this 21 minute conversation Joseph Lafave discusses the status of the current outbreak, the role political instability resulting from a disputed December 30th DRC presidential election is playing in containing the outbreak, what support the US is currently providing, how the US's current response compares to its 2014-2016 efforts, what related actions the Congress has taken, progress in developing an Ebola vaccine and the difficulty in fighting a major public health problem in context of political unrest.
Joseph Lafave is a journalist with NewRep and covers infectious disease outbreaks along with military and finance issues. Prior to is journalism work that included work at the Shreveport News, Mr. Lafave worked as an Environmental Safety and Health Engineer for Lockheed Martin as a Emergency Medical Technician in Leon County, Florida, and as a Safety Administrator for University Health Shreveport. Mr. Lafave holds a Masters of Science in Healthcare Management from the University of Southern New Hampshire and an undergraduate degree in criminology from Florida State University.
For more information on Ebola go to, e.g., https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html.
Also, please see this January 22nd JAMA viewpoint/editorial, "Ebola and War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Avoiding Failure and Thinking Ahead," at: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2717586?guestAccessKey=c668402c-2993-40a9-95aa-eefd1a0c47f1&utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_content=etoc&utm_term=012219
The Current Ebola Outbreak in the Congo: A Conversation with Joseph Lafave (January 17th)