Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, migration out of the war zone and poor sanitation in refugee camps mean that the latest Ebola outbreak  will be hard to control – according to expert Prof Paul Hunter. Prof Paul Hunter is an expert in the patterns, causes and effects of emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola. He was a lead media commentator during the outbreak in West Africa 2014-2016 .

Prof Paul Hunter, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “The greater availability of an effective vaccine since the disastrous Ebola epidemic that affected West Africa from 2014 to 2016 has substantially enhanced our ability to stop the spread of this disease. However, the effectiveness of any immunization campaign depends on the ability to deliver that vaccine to the appropriate people is a timely manner.

“Unfortunately the latest outbreak in Northeast Congo is in an area of armed conflict and this poses substantial difficulties for effective prevention.
“Firstly the threat to the lives of health workers from armed militias will prevent easy access to at risk populations leading to delays in running vaccination campaigns.

“The threats to the life of health care workers are not restricted to war zones and even in the West African epidemic we saw murders of health care workers as in the case of Womey, Guinea.

“Secondly the exposed populations are themselves far from settled with many people migrating out of the area and into neighbouring countries. This makes it very difficult to trace potentially exposed people to offer them immunization. Also, if people incubating the disease are migrating out of the area this can hasten the spread of the disease to surrounding communities and neighbouring countries.

“The greater population density and poor sanitation in many refugee camps can further multiply the cases of infection,” he added.