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The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an international health emergency.
The outbreak, which might have deadly consequences at the southwest border of the United States, has killed more than 2,500 people.
Hundreds of African migrants, some of them from the Congo, are crossing the border with Mexico. Any with Ebola might infect not only the illegal aliens tramping up from the Northern Triangle, but also the border agents and anyone else who must deal with them.
More than 30,000 Africans were headed for the border, The New American reported in early July, citing a report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
How many, if any, have the death-dealing virus is unknown, as is the number with Ebola who have crossed. We do know this: Ebola kills and kills fast.
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WHO Report
The declaration from WHO’s Emergency Committee for Ebola Virus Disease published yesterday.
“There are increased numbers of cases in Butembo and Mabalako; the epicentre has moved from Mabalako to Beni; and there is one imported case in Goma,” the committee reported.
Those cities are in the eastern part of the country, near Rwanda and Uganda.
The committee’s report describes the conditions that help spread the grim contagion, which sound similar to those in the detention facilities where federal immigration officials are housing the Africans and Central Americans.
“Factors affecting the outbreak include population movement in highly densely populated areas; weak infection and prevention control practices in many health facilities,” the committee reported.
Beni remains the epicentre of the outbreak, with 46% of the cases over the last 3 weeks. Mangina has 18% of the cases, and one new case in Goma came from Beni, with diagnosis confirmed within one hour of the patient’s arrival at a health facility. The patient, who was not known to be a contact, traveled to Goma with several other people in a bus. When the vehicle broke down, he went to a health facility via motorbike. He was transferred to an Ebola Treatment Centre, but later died. Response to the case in Goma took place within 72 hours. Contact tracing was performed, with 75 contacts vaccinated, as well as co-travellers, and family members are being monitored. Surveillance is being reinforced and readiness strengthened. 15,000 people cross the border from Goma to Rwanda every day, as Goma is an important centre of economic activities with Rwanda. Closing this border would strongly affect the population of Goma and have adverse implications for the response. There is a continuing need for increased awareness among the population on the outbreak situation and stronger engagement on health-seeking behaviours.
The committee reported that Ebola is infecting 80 people a week, and “the recent travel to and from Uganda of a local trader who later died of Ebola demonstrates that the risk remains high for bordering countries.”
In other words, border agents and other illegal aliens at the border are at risk of the deadly infection. State and federal health and immigration officials, along with local health, hospital, welfare, and public school authorities should consider themselves warned. Nosocomial transmission, or that occurring in a hospital, is a concern, the committee reported.
As of Tuesday, the committee confirmed 2,512 cases, including 136 health workers, 40 of whom died. The web page that tracks the outbreak put the figure at 2,522 cases, with 1698 deaths.
So more than 67 percent of those who have contracted the virus in the latest outbreak are dead.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the seven-variety virus, which spreads in bodily fluids, causes a hemorrhagic fever that is often if not mostly fatal. The symptoms include fever, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, muscle pain, severe headache, stomach pain, and hemorrhaging.
Diseased Africans Headed to Your Town?
As CIS explained in a startling report published July 1, 35,000 African “migrants” are traveling north through Panama and Central America. They hope, like the impoverished Central American “migrants” from the Northern Triangle, to cross the border, claim “asylum,” then stay in the United States.
The group includes Congolese, Ghanaians, and Cameroonians who might well carry the deadly virus. Like the Central American illegals, they know the radical leftists are stopping the president from closing the borders, and as well, the very long time required to assess an asylum claim.
The Africans also know what lies they must tell to make their asylum claims sound credible.
Image: Manjurul via iStock / Getty Images Plus
