Ebola veteran warns virus could become entrenched in DRC if outbreak response does not improve
A long-time veteran of Ebola responses has raised serious concerns about the way the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being handled, saying he fears transmission of the virus may not be stopped in the region.
In a commentary published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, Dr. Pierre Rollin criticized the response for a lack of coordination and urged the DRC health ministry to accept more outside help to support laboratory services and generate real-time genetic sequencing of viruses, something authorities there have been unwilling to do so far.
The state of the outbreak, Rollin said, has not improved and unless it does, the virus could become endemic — entrenched — in the region. That view is not widely shared by other Ebola experts, he acknowledged in an interview Friday with STAT.
