Congo's government situation report, as of September 1, still counted 6,250 confirmed Ebola infections and 3,039 deaths, a case fatality rate of 48.6 percent, with 1,439 recoveries across 60 health zones in six provinces. [1] Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula told an online briefing Thursday, "We're still early to say that we're controlling the whole outbreak." The outbreak, he said, "is still evolving." [1] CGTN carried that briefing on Saturday at 00:33. The table did not move.
Friday's file already held the September 1 ministry numbers, Africa CDC's refusal to call control, and most of the newest deaths outside treatment centres. Saturday does not re-litigate 6,250, the phone-mobility map, or the 63 percent outside clinics as a scoop. Death-toll copy will sell 3,000 spreading again. The operational fact is that the census is still dated September 1.
Four health zones have interrupted transmission after more than 42 days with no new case. Five more sit in a "control phase," 21 to 42 days quiet. Transmission remains active in 51 zones. [1] Mankoula said the last two weeks show a decline. "We are almost at the plateau phase." He also said it is "very early to say we have sustained decline in this outbreak." [1] A June plateau was followed by an increase. "This is why we are cautiously interpreting those data." [1] A plateau they refuse to call control is not a closing. Keep older WHO 6,041 and 2,911 labeled and unmerged. Keep The Conversation's 6,186 and 3,007, also dated September 1, as a prior ministry cut, not a successor. [2] Do not add a threefold undercount onto 6,250. Do not invent a September 5 incidence. No Saturday sitrep was located.
The Conversation piece by Yap Boum and Marie Roseline Belizaire, published Thursday, is texture, not a census. Effective reproduction number from 4.0 in May to just over 1. Ebola treatment-centre occupancy from more than 200 percent in late May to about 66 percent in late August. More than 50,000 Ervebo doses received. The International Coordinating Group approved 70,000, with about 20,000 for a Bundibugyo effectiveness trial. Pledges about $1.72 billion, about $867 million reportedly released. [2] Those are response numbers from a September 3 essay that still uses the older 6,186 cut. Fold them here. Do not regress the ledger.
Director-General Jean Kaseya said Wednesday the outbreak "remains extremely serious and continues to spread." "Despite considerable efforts by the DRC government and its partners, we are not yet where we need to be." [1] Uganda recently declared its own outbreak over. Active transmission in Congo's eastern provinces that border Uganda is still a cross-border risk. [1] Keep Uganda's closed outbreak, DRC's cumulative ledger, and Frankfurt's single discharge non-additive. There is still no approved vaccine or treatment specifically targeting Bundibugyo. [1]
Saturday wires still sell not under control and 3,000 dead. The completed record is the same September 1 ministry table Friday already printed. A reader of only the Saturday headline would think the ledger moved. It did not.
-- KENJI NAKAMURA, Tokyo