Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda: Ebola Outbreak

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the World Health Organization’s designation of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda as a public health emergency of international concern.

The Government are closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are working with international partners, including the WHO and Africa CDC, to support a co-ordinated response and to strengthen surveillance, containment and preparedness. We have committed up to £21 million to this effort. I will travel to the region next week to engage Ministers and demonstrate the UK’s support. Although it is a serious outbreak, the risk to the UK public remains low.

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her response. Ebola cases and deaths are increasing on a daily basis, hence the designation by the World Health Organization. Given the severity of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, compounded by ongoing warfare, will she ensure, in discussions with ministerial colleagues in the Foreign Office, that the financial allocation to the overseas aid budget is increased to enable humanitarian organisations to help scale up a treatment and prevention resource? This should include addressing the shortage in medics, PPE and infection control measures, including the speedy development, testing and approval of a vaccine to assist in the eradication of this disease.

We have already allocated £1 million, plus we have up to another £20 million through the team in Kinshasa. We are working closely with colleagues in Kampala. There have been two cases. Reassuringly, the other suspected cases have tested negative. We are working closely with the Government in Uganda to support them. They are also offering to support the Government in Kinshasa in addressing this outbreak. We are working closely with CDC and the WHO. We are the lead partner co-ordinating donors. As my noble friend said, it is an extremely difficult part of the world in which to operate and respond to these kinds of deadly outbreaks, but we are working with partners and those on the ground to do that.

My Lords, what progress has been made towards the negotiation of a pandemic convention by the World Health Organization? Does the Minister not agree that some of the characteristics of the draft pandemic convention, on early warning and working together to develop vaccines, are extremely relevant to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda?

I agree with that, and we are working closely with the WHO. On vaccine development, no vaccine is currently able to be deployed against this particular strain, but work is going on at speed to examine the utilisation of vaccines that have already been developed and tested, and whether they may be effective against this strain. The noble Lord will also understand the complexity and difficulty of distributing and administering vaccine in this context.

My Lords, will the Government play a central role as they did in 2014-15 in Sierra Leone, which helped to ensure that a disease already spreading internationally was checked in its tracks, saving many lives in west Africa and worldwide?

Yes, that is what we are doing. I will be in the region next week and we speak regularly with our ministerial counterparts in the DRC and Uganda. I think some of the system-strengthening work that has taken place since the 2014 outbreak will help, but I am sure the noble Baroness understands the rather unique situation in the DRC and that this outbreak has happened in the east. We see a lack of territorial control over parts of that region by the Government in Kinshasa and the proliferation of armed groups in that part of the world.

My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness’s statement and particularly her proactive engagement on the ground. One of the experiences from the Covid pandemic was the link-up between the private sector and our international partners to scale up with India. Based on the response she gave earlier, that there is still development needed, what representations and engagement are being made, particularly with the private sector and those countries, such as India, that can scale up vaccine production?

It is in an early phase and we are looking at trying to get a vaccine developed. I do not know whether that is specifically with India or with private sector partners, but it may be that a vaccine that has already been tested is effective against this strain. We hope that is the case, though there is an immediate need to get equipment into the region and distributed. We need to make sure that it is used correctly and to plan for how we will be able to distribute vaccine, as and when it is available, because the major barrier here is the complexity and the conflict going on. As the noble Lord will know, many different non-state armed groups are present in the area.

My Lords, given what the Minister has rightly said about the systemic challenges facing aid workers and others in the east of the DRC, will she look carefully during her visit to the region at the effect of the large numbers of displaced people now in refugee camps? Those are the perfect breeding ground for diseases of any kind, but especially of Ebola. What is being done to assess the role that ISIS affiliates are now playing? I suspect that she has seen some of the material I sent her recently about attacks on minorities, including the burning down of churches, and on people living in remote villages. What more can we do about that?

What we can do about that is a very big question, but I visited Beni in the east of the DRC earlier this year and I know exactly the context that the noble Lord describes. We have the ADF, FDLR and M23 there; we may be able to engage with some of these groups, or maybe others can, but with others it will be far more difficult. Where those actors have control, in the end they will be responsible for responding to this outbreak. That injects a whole other level of complexity and difficulty into this, but we cannot let that put us off doing what needs to be done to save lives from this outbreak.

My Lords, the outbreak of Ebola in this region is extremely concerning, and we welcome the funding that the Minister has referenced. Can she perhaps say what support is available to any UK citizens who are in the region, notwithstanding the difficulties of access to the eastern region of the DRC, which we all know about? What other consular support is available in these areas to any of our people?

Our team in Kinshasa is in crisis mode, as noble Lords would expect, and ready to provide any support. There are very few UK nationals in that part of the world because of the danger from the conflict, but there are some UK medics—I have met them—and well-tested protocols are in place should they wish to return to the UK. We know how to do this; we are experienced in doing it and, obviously, our priority is to keep the UK and our citizens safe.

My Lords, the vaccine that exists is effective only against Ebola Zaire. The strain now operating has had two previous minor breakouts; Bundibugyo is the name of the strain. I hope the Minister will agree that our hope lies in developing a vaccine as quickly as we can, which might take up to six or nine months. But we have the knowledge of the vaccine against the Zaire strain, which is an advantage. The outbreak has now reached Kampala, which is worrying, but the Ugandans are apt, as they demonstrated previously, at isolating the cases and stopping the outbreak going any further. I hope it will not spread any further.