Pierre Rollin, MD, an Ebola expert with the CDC, said first responders are making little progress in containing the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak, according to NPR.
Here are five things to know:
1. Dr. Rollin, who visited the Congo in October, said typical outbreaks are usually contained within three to four months. However, the Congo's Ebola outbreak is now on its fourth month, with few signs of slowing down.
"It's as if we're just starting [containment efforts] now when in fact we started three months ago," Dr. Rollin told NPR. "We're not making any progress."
2. Dr. Rollin said first responders are having trouble tracking Ebola patients and their contacts, who can set off a new train of disease transmission if they are not detected and treated.
"I was looking at the last 30 days of cases and two-thirds of them were of unknown origin — so we can't trace them," he told NPR.
3. Further complicating response efforts is the ongoing violence in the outbreak zone, which could get worse during the country's national elections in December, according to Dr. Rollin.
4. Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization's deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response, on Nov. 13 said he expects the outbreak to continue until the middle of next year.
5. As of Nov. 14, the WHO has identified 344 confirmed and probable Ebola cases linked to the outbreak, along with 202 deaths.
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