The Democratic Republic of Congo announces that the world’s worst measles outbreak which killed more than 7000 children under five-years-old is over.

The announcement by Health Minister Eteni Londondo  still requires authentication by the World Health Organization which a day earlier 

declared Africa free of wild polio.

The measles outbreak occurred 25-months ago in the south-eastern corner of the DRC and then spread to all 26 provinces.

It infected 335 000 children who suffered blindness, brain swelling, diarrhea and respiratory infection. 

Congo’s hard-pressed medical infrastructure mounted a massive vaccination programme targeting millions of children.

Fighting measles, they were also combatting an EBOLA outbreak that killed 2287 people, vaccine-induced polio, COVID 19, which has killed 251 of the nearly 10 000 people it sickened, and even the bubonic plague. 

The end of the Congolese outbreak doesn’t allow medics to take their foot off the gas there or in any low income country.

An article in The Lancet earlier this year quoted  Tanja  Ducomble and Etienne  Gignano of Medecins Sans Frontieres saying outbreaks occur every two years in the DRC another countries that have a gap in vaccinations and poor access to health care.

Madagascar, Chad and Nigeria are African countries still fighting outbreaks and further afield the Philippines, Yemen and Ukraine are currently experiencing extensive measles infections.

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And then there was one.

On the last day of April, Comoran President Azali Assoumani announced that a 50 year old compatriot has contracted COVID 19.

That leaves Lesotho as the only African country free of coronavirus.

The infected Comoran had been in contact with a French-Comoran national with a history of travel to France.

Authorities are at full stretch ascertaining who the infected man has been in contact with.

A nighttime curfew has been imposed. Assoumani says he has not implemented a tougher lockdown because the majority of his one million people live off informal earnings.

Large gathering are prohibited and Mosques were ordered closed. Nevertheless in the holy month of Ramadan people congregated around the time of prayers and police were moved in to disperse them.

The immediate reaction from the Moroni government mirrors that of other African countries that closed their borders and ordered populations to stay at home immediately COVID 19 cases were detected.

So far this  has held at bay the viral onslaught predicated for Africa by the World Health Organization.

Nevertheless the UN  health body persists that Africa, with hundreds of millions crowded into informal housing settlements and notorious weak healthcare infrastructures, is in danger of becoming the COVID 19 nightmare.

Among the reasons for Africa staying behind the curve is the fact that international  correspondents based in capitals like Johannesburg, Nairobi and Addis Ababa have tended to stay put – in their countries if not their capitals – because of the border closures.

They have reported diligently on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s success in handing off mass infections thanks to draconian lockdown regulations.

But they have not been able to answer why other must poorer countries have much lower infection rates.

Is it climactic conditions? Coronavirus spread through Europe, China and the United States in the flu season i.e. the winter months. It has been a warm summer in the southern hemisphere.

Is it African countries experience in dealing with highly infectious diseases like EBOLA, malaria, tuberculosis, measles and SARS?

Is the tuberculosis vaccine BCG administered to African children shortly after birth effective against COVID 19.

Is it the youthfulness of the African population and the growing evidence that, deadly as it might be to the elderly and the medically compromised, COVID 19 barely affects the youth?

Is it – and this is quite terrifying –  because African countries have simply not been equipped to count the number of infections?

Burundi, which came into the game very late, made this admission.through its Health Minister Thadée Ndikumana

To each of these, honest observers must say what any responsible journalists covering  the pandemic should say. We simply don’t know.

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The world body says its absolutely vital to beef up health care of children in the DRC also facing  measles, cholera, malaria and EBOLA.

The figures are alarming. 5 300 children under five years old died from the world’s worst measles outbreak in the DRC last year.

There were more than 16,5 million cases of malaria resulting in more than 7000 deaths.

Cholera sickened 31 000 Congolese children.

The EBOLA outbreak is waning – no thanks to the various rebel militia that have turned three provinces in the Eastern DRC into a war zone.

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Testing quickly, cost effectively and above all accurately key to controlling the spread of coronavirus.

As part of its billion rand effort to curb COVID19, the UK Government’s awarded a million rand tender to a British biotech firm to develop test kits.

That company has gone into a venture with the Institute Pasteur de Dakar which specializes in custom making point of need epidemic related test kits.

They have set June as a delivery date for a hand-held device that will reliably diagnose COVID19 within ten minutes.

It will be validated by an international array of institutions including London University  and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

The British firm MOLOGIC has developed similar test kits to detect EBOLA, measles and yellow fever. 

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That’s twice as many fatalities from this easily treatable virus as those from the far more deadly EBOLA outbreak in the Central African Country.

The World Health Organization is calling the DRC outbreak the largest and fastest moving measles epidemic on the planet.

There have been 310 000 cases reported this past year in every one of the DRC’s 26 provinces.

In 2019, 18 million children under five years old were vaccinated against measles in the DRC.

However poor infrastructure, attacks on health centers and poor access to routine health care is making impossible to keep pace with the spread of the virus.

The WHO says a quarter of the cases in this epidemic are children over five years old who are the most vulnerable.

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This is the third round of protests George Weah is facing since taking office as President two years ago.

George Weah inherited a country emerging from back to back civil wars and the worst EBOLA outbreak on the planet.

However he made a number of promises in his campaign to succeed Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia’s President.

The activist group known as the Council of Patriots repeatedly reminds him that he is falling short on delivery.

They are protesting Liberia’s deepening economic crisis.

They maintain this is compounded by corruption and mismanagement  of public funds – charges that Weah’s government vehemently denies 

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In the settlement of Apetina Sana, near the city of Beni, fighters of the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces hacked civilians – including a  number of children – to death with machetes.

The attacks took place in what has become known as the triangle of death in which more than 200 people have been slaughtered since October.

Regional players are putting increasing pressure on Uganda to stop allowing the rebels to shelter there after incursions.

The attacks are making it nearly impossible to conduct vaccinations against and treatment  for the EBOLA  outbreak in the Beni region.

The World Health Organization fears it might be slipping out of control. 

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The epidemic in all 26 provinces of the DRC has killed more than the EBOLA outbreak in the east of the country.

The measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest and fastest-moving in the world.

It has killed 3500 people – mainly children – this year.

The highly-infectious viral illness can lead to brain and lung problems.

Previous immunization attempts have failed to quell it because people lack access to the vaccine and basic health care.

As is the case with EBOLA, insecurity and hostility of the local population to health workers hampers their operation.

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The United Nations stabilizing mission MONUSCO says civilians, including children, were targeted.

The province of  Ituri  is one of those affected by the Ebola outbreak in the DRC.

The age-old violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders, which has killed more than 200 people and displaced a further 30 000 since June ,   is one of the most serious challenges to medical staff trying to contain the epidemic.

People trying to flee this violence were cut down in the villages and displacement camps that came under fire from unidentified gunmen.

There has not been any comment yet from the DRC government or the United Nations.

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The Rwandan action follows the death of second EBOLA patient in the DRC’s eastern capital and confirmation of the fourth infection by the deadly hemorrhagic disease.

Rwanda reopened its border with the DRC at Goma and has yet to explain its action.

President Paul Kagame came under intense pressure from the United Nations which has urged the Congo’s neighbors not to close their borders following the World Health Organization’s declaration of the EBOLA outbreak, that’s killed more than 1800 people, a public health emergency of international concern.

Medical charities helping Congolese health authorities say they fear the outbreak is running out of control. 

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