Agency Report
The World Health Organisation has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains far from controlled, with the disease spreading at an unprecedented pace and posing a growing risk of international transmission.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, gave the warning on Tuesday during an emergency meeting on the outbreak, saying health authorities were struggling to keep pace with its spread.
“We must be frank: the epidemic is far from being under control,” Ghebreyesus told the meeting.
“It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up.”
The outbreak has so far been reported in six provinces of the DRC, including areas close to the South Sudan border, while neighbouring Uganda has also recorded cases. WHO currently rates the public health risk as “very high” nationally in the DRC and “high” for Uganda and other neighbouring countries.
“The risk of further national and international spread remains high,” Ghebreyesus warned.
“It is moving faster than any previous Ebola outbreak,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
The DRC government said on Monday that the outbreak had killed more than 2,300 people among nearly 5,000 reported cases, making it the deadliest Ebola epidemic in the country’s history.
The outbreak was officially declared on May 15, although health authorities believe the virus had already been circulating for several weeks. It has affected northern and eastern parts of the country, where weak state presence, limited health infrastructure and the activities of armed groups have complicated the response.
The latest emergency committee meeting was the second since WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, its second-highest level of global health alert. The committee had yet to announce its recommendations as of Tuesday.
The scale of the outbreak has already surpassed the previous deadliest Ebola epidemic in the DRC. The 2018-2020 outbreak killed 2,299 people from 3,381 confirmed cases, according to WHO figures based on Congolese data.
The deadliest Ebola epidemic recorded globally occurred in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, when more than 11,300 people died, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
AFP
