Mistrusting the process: containing Congo’s Ebola outbreak
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What is the current scale of the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC?
The Economist. Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from The Economist. I'm Jason Palmer.
Today on the show how Europe is trying to wean itself off American Tech and the resurgent phenomenon that is the sticky toffee pudding.
First up though.
In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, attempts to control a worrisome outbreak of Ebola are being hampered by the very people they're meant to help. Medical tents on fire, burned out beds, the sporadic warning shots of police. Health officials know that safely burying Ebola victims is crucial. Contact with bodies can spread the disease further. But local custom often has it that community members ritually wash the dead, and, more to the point, they don't trust the warnings that authorities are giving them. And so you get scenes like this in Rumpara with fights over a burial. Arson and protest met with tear gas. It's just one of the dynamics that's complicating a crucial response.
The world faces a huge task to combat the latest Ebola outbreak.
John McDermott is our Chief Africa correspondent.
There is no vaccine for this strain and the on-the-ground realities make tackling it incredibly difficult. So there's a growing recognition that both in Congo, where the outbreak is centered, and in the rest of the region, everyone is playing catch up.
And before we talk about the challenges that you mentioned, just give us a a sense of what the the current state of the outbreak is.
All the numbers going around about this outbreak need to be treated with some caution. And that's precisely because the virus has almost certainly been circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo for at least a couple of months before it was detected. Officially, the Congolese authorities reckon there are more than a thousand suspected cases and about 250 deaths. Mostly in the province of Aturi, and But firstly, Those numbers are likely to be underestimates because of a shortage of testing capacity. And secondly, and most worryingly, we are seeing signs of spread to other parts of the region. A couple of other Congolese provinces, South Kivu and North Kivu, have detected suspected cases. Uganda has had several cases as well.
And experts are almost certain that. There will be cases in South Sudan, which is another country neighboring Ituri. At the same time, we shouldn't become overly hysterical that this is about to turn into a global pandemic.
Why are local communities in Ituri distrustful of Ebola response teams?
There have been some potential reports of cases being imported by Congolese travelers to, for example, Brazil, although, as I speak to you now, those cases have not been. confirmed, the centre of the crisis remains the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the surrounding countries.
Now you said that realities on the ground are making matters tougher. What do you mean by that?
It is just hard to imagine a more difficult place to deal with an Ebola outbreak than Ituri, this province in the east of the DRC. It is desperately poor. There are a lot of refugees. There is widespread conflict involving a plethora of militia, including one that has links to Islamic State. And there is so little trust. in the state and almost any institution that represents authority. And this means that when medics are trying to offer help, there's often quite a rational response, which is, well, who are you to say you are helping me? Who are you to say that you can protect me? ActionAid NGO did a survey of some of the health areas it works in in Eturi, and it found that a third of people do not believe that Ebola is real.
And I'm also picking up from my sources there that there is a lingering sense from previous Ebola outbreaks that when people pitch up offering help. They're perceived to be trying to feather their own nest, as if the Congolese government or international NGOs are doing it to make money as opposed to help them. So as well as some of the operational issues that they have to deal with in the province, such as setting up isolation tents, you have this intangible challenge as well, which is building the trust of the local population.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the current scale of the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC?
0:03–3:21
2
Why are local communities in Ituri distrustful of Ebola response teams?
3:21–6:09
3
How does the ‘institutional immune system’ protect against Ebola spread?
6:09–9:23
4
What role do national governments and politicians play in the outbreak response?
9:23–12:27
5
How are scientists advancing a vaccine for the Bundibugyo Ebola strain?
12:27–15:12
6
Why is Europe seeking technological sovereignty from US tech giants?
15:12–17:31
7
What are the main concerns behind Europe’s push for home‑grown cloud and AI services?
17:31–19:52
8
How did a TikTok‑fueled craze revive interest in sticky toffee pudding?
19:52–21:05