Canadian aid workers are heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where hundreds of people have likely been infected with a rare and deadly type of Ebola.
Halifax-based Chiran Livera, operations lead of the Canadian Red Cross, says he's hoping to arrive in the next few days, while a team of public health and logistics experts are already on their way.
Their work will involve contact tracing, psychological support and helping people get to treatment centres.
Livera, who has been a part of aid relief in five of the Congo's 17 Ebola outbreaks, says this one is different because there is no vaccine or treatment specifically for this species of Ebola, called Bundibugyo.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths, though officials believe the scale of the spread is much larger.
Canadian Trish Newport, an emergency manger for Doctors Without Borders, says the aid group always has emergency preparedness plans for Ebola outbreaks.
Since 2009, she has been part of missions to Ituri province, where an outbreak was declared just last week that has since reached North Kivu and Uganda.
"But no preparedness was ready for this. I mean, when you have 500 suspect cases and so many deaths, you never have enough body bags to do safe and dignified burials. You don't actually have enough PPE to be able to safely respond,” Newport said.
The response from Canada's international aid workers comes as one person in Ontario who recently returned from East Africa was undergoing testing for Ebola, the province's health ministry said on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear which type of Ebola the patient in Ontario was being tested for, or where in the region they travelled to.
A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada says samples from the test are expected to arrive today at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku
