A “mysterious disease” recently struck the southwestern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Between 67 and 143 people over two weeks. The disease was said to cause flu-like symptoms of fever, headache, cough and anemia.
An epidemiologist said Reuters That it was mainly women and kids who were severely affected by the disease. But still little or no is thought about this disease.
Health officials within the DRC are urgently investigating the incident to find out the explanation for the deadly outbreak. Initially, they may consider possible diseases which might be endemic to the region corresponding to Malaria, Dengue or Chikungunya.
However, it will possibly be difficult to seek out their cause. Problems with diagnostic testing infrastructureAs well as difficulties in collecting samples, getting these samples to the laboratory and testing them.
In low-income countries, corresponding to the DRC, many clinical laboratories can only test for common pathogens. I limits Quality and performance Some of their medical laboratories even have an issue.
If it's not considered one of the same old suspects, detecting rare pathogens often requires sending samples to more specialized laboratories that may perform specialized tests, corresponding to gene sequencing.
This may mean that samples have to be sent to laboratories abroad. However, there's international sharing of such biological patterns. Highly controversial over concerns that the advantages of doing so are sometimes not equitably shared between countries;
Another priority for local health officials is to grasp the magnitude and severity of the outbreak. The high death toll and variety of infected people is alarming. However, it is just not easy to work out the precise extent of such an outbreak, as not all infected patients will likely be detected.
Not all victims seek care. Clinics might be few and much between, especially in distant areas, and are sometimes understaffed. Indeed, the DRC has. Less than two doctors per 10,000 population (in comparison with the UK where there are over 31 doctors per 10,000 population).
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Even if patients go to a hospital or clinic, not all infections will likely be diagnosed. Not all patients will likely be tested for infection, and never all detected infections are reported to health authorities.
Lack of knowledge in regards to the cause, extent and number of individuals affected makes it difficult to accurately estimate the danger. But this is just not an isolated threat. There are outbreaks of recent infectious diseases. Happened regularly over the years.
This is partly driven by climate change, changing population demographics, urbanization and deforestation that enable the “spillover” of infections from animals to humans.
Unfortunately, our global pandemic radar is broken. Disease surveillance is globally fragmented..
In poor countries there will likely be many areas where diseases go undetected or are detected late. Monitoring services are sometimes available. Poor resources And understaffed, staff often lack training or supervision, and reporting might not be standardized.
There can also be a big delay between the time an individual becomes infected and is diagnosed. Public health authorities were notified.. This leads to a delay in response to epidemic control. These problems are worse in resource-poor settings, corresponding to in sub-Saharan Africa.
What are you trying to unravel?
A World Health Organization (WHO) initiative is being piloted in several countries in Africa, South America and South Asia. 7-1-7 initiative. It sets aspirational targets for infectious disease outbreaks to be detected inside seven days, public health authorities notified inside in the future, and 7 days to finish an initial response. It's a laudable goal, nevertheless it could also be too late for a fast-spreading outbreak.
Another solution is to raised coordinate and coordinate existing monitoring activities and systems. One such initiative is WHO. Integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR), which has been deployed primarily in Africa over the past twenty years.
IDSR has had mixed success to this point. Oh A recent review Information technology system issues, financial constraints and data sharing issues in addition to manpower gaps were identified.
Other global initiatives include International Pathogen Surveillance Network Collected by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, and up to date efforts to advertise Collaborative supervision To work together and share information in addition to expertise across different agencies and sectors (from human health to animal health and the environment).
The effectiveness of such measures stays to be seen, but they're a step in the precise direction. Without higher global disease surveillance, we may not detect the subsequent pandemic until it is simply too late.