Seventy-one confirmed Ebola cases have been detected along transit routes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the outbreak began almost six months ago, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
The cases were picked up at points of entry and control, 95 per cent of them on informal routes that bypass official checkpoints, Dr. Andrew Mbala, IOM's Regional Ebola Coordinator, told journalists in Geneva, speaking from Nairobi.
With transmission continuing, people on the move and funding running short, the agency says surveillance has to reach well beyond formal border crossings if the outbreak is to be contained.
"Often when people think about response and especially in this context of Ebola, many people tend to think about the hospitals, the treatment centres, the isolation wards and all that," he said. "We need to think about the mobility of the population."
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 10,400 confirmed cases and 5,103 deaths had been reported in the DRC as of 31 October.
IOM maps the places where people gather, such as markets, bus stations and places of worship. It also maps what it calls "the mobility corridor", meaning where people are travelling to and from, including areas hit by the outbreak.
Those findings show responders where to send staff and resources.
Since the outbreak began, teams have carried out 55 million screenings in the DRC and 11 neighbouring countries.
Dr. Mbala said most people transporting the bodies of Ebola victims also use informal routes. So far, 258 bodies have been intercepted.
"It is quite important that we look into the points of control and to be able to expand our scope in terms of response to make sure that we cover all the informal routes, not only concentrating on the formal ones," he said.
IOM also supports surveillance at 57 displacement sites in the DRC, 50 of them in health zones affected by the outbreak. It is helping affected and at-risk countries improve early detection and screening.
The agency needs $110 million for its regional operations through March 2027 but is nearly $60 million short.
Elsewhere in the DRC, peacekeepers with the UN mission, MONUSCO, evacuated three civilians, two women and a man, who were wounded in a shooting along the Plaine Savo-Gali road in Ituri Province on Sunday.
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They were taken from Bethlehem to Fataki Hospital with a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nurse travelling with them, and all three arrived safely for further treatment.
The mission said the evacuation was part of its work to protect civilians and help people get urgent medical care in areas hit by insecurity.
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