Kisangani (DR Congo) (AFP)
Ebola prevention materials were stolen in Kisangani, a large city in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, seriously weakening the capacity of health teams, local health services said Friday.
"We lost a thermoflash, it was stolen, there is no trace of a large amount of chlorine and yellow fever vaccine vials, all our statistics on Ebola prevention are also lost. "said Dr. Paulin Muteba, coordinator of the national hygiene program of the province of Tshopo (north-east) in Kisangani.
The thermoflash makes it possible to take the temperature without contact, first step in the detection of a possible presence of the disease.
This equipment disappeared Tuesday during a forced evacuation operation of this Congolese state service of a building he occupied, by a court decision.
"We had only nine thermoflashes, one broken down and one stolen.With a thermoflash, we can not control more than 15,000 passengers who come from Ituri because more than 20,000 people checked, the results are biased" said Dr. Muteba.
"This situation will also disrupt prevention activities at Kisangani airport," added the doctor: "without chlorine mixed with water, passengers will not wash their hands and we can no longer disinfect vehicles from Bunia in Ituri ".
The Ituri region is marginally affected by the outbreak of Ebola reported last August in Beni, neighboring North Kivu province.
Located 480 km west of Beni, Kisangani, capital of Tshopo province, is an important commercial hub of more than 1.6 million inhabitants.
It has important exchanges with the neighboring province of Ituri and the territory of Beni, the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic in North Kivu (east).
A possible spread of the haemorrhagic fever epidemic to large, densely populated urban centers and beyond the DRC's borders would give it a new dimension.
© 2019 AFP