Congo's Ebola outbreak reaches 598 cases and 115 deaths. US demands Europe impose lockdowns before the World Cup, Belgium and scientists reject it as disproportionate

The Ebola epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has 598 confirmed cases and 115 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organization, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that without a more forceful intervention the number of infections could reach as high as twenty thousand. WHO ↗ Three weeks after the declaration of a global health emergency, however, politics has become the focus of the story. Washington is pressing European countries to impose strict travel restrictions ahead of the upcoming football World Cup — otherwise, it warns, the virus risks spreading to North America. Belgium has refused, the French newspaper Le Monde quotes scientists as saying the American strategy is "disproportionate and unethical," and in Kenya a person died during a protest against a US quarantine center.

The disease is outrunning the response

The outbreak remains concentrated in the east of the country — its epicenter is Ituri province with 563 confirmed cases, with further cases reported in North and South Kivu and neighboring Uganda. WHO ↗ The number of confirmed deaths passed one hundred less than a month after the epidemic was declared and, according to the Congolese government, has risen to 115. Tagesspiegel ↗ The Bundibugyo strain responsible for the outbreak has no approved vaccine — the available Ervebo vaccine works only against the related Zaire strain — and efforts to contain the outbreak are complicated by attacks on healthcare workers. The Independent ↗ US CDC models acknowledge that, if the response is slow, the number of cases could climb as high as twenty thousand. France 24 ↗

Washington pushes restrictions onto Europe

The US State Department has called on European states to abandon the World Health Organization's approach and impose stricter travel rules meant to prevent the virus from entering North America during the World Cup. The Independent ↗ According to The Independent, the Trump administration is already laying the groundwork to blame Europe should a case slip through. The Independent ↗ A symbol of this tension is American doctor Peter Stafford, whom the United States evacuated from Congo to the isolation ward of Berlin's Charité clinic — his condition was life-threatening, and treatment costs reached a seven-figure sum, according to the newspaper Tagesspiegel. Tagesspiegel ↗

Belgium and experts say no

Belgium was the first to publicly reject the American demand for an entry ban on travelers from Congo. Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke declared that Brussels would follow scientific recommendations and not bow to political pressure from Washington. Politico Europe ↗ Experts consulted by Le Monde described Washington's measures — travel bans, the transfer of sick Americans to Europe, and the quarantine center in Kenya — as "disproportionate and unethical." Le Monde ↗ The WHO's emergency committee issued its travel recommendations back on May 22 — American measures go beyond them. WHO ↗

Death in Nanyuki, Kenya

The sharpest conflict was triggered by the construction of a US quarantine center for American citizens in the town of Nanyuki, about 190 kilometers north of Nairobi. BBC ↗ At a protest where residents carried a coffin labeled "Ebola," police used tear gas, and one demonstrator suffered a gunshot wound to the head, which, according to both The Guardian and France 24, proved fatal. The Guardian ↗ France 24 ↗ Kenyans accuse Washington of transferring onto their country a health risk of its own making. The Independent ↗

Football in the shadow of the virus

The entire diplomatic contest has one common denominator — the approaching football World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The Democratic Republic of Congo also qualified for the tournament, and the epidemic has disrupted its preparations: organizers canceled a friendly match in La Línea, Spain, and the Congolese Leopards ultimately played Chile in Orléans, France, instead. Le Monde ↗ It is precisely this American fear that the virus might reach the tournament that has ignited a dispute extending far beyond medicine.

Read also: 131 dead in Congo and an Ebola strain without a vaccine. WHO raises the highest alert level, Charité in Berlin to admit American doctor