The countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo are at high risk from Ebola and should act immediately to counter the virus, the World Health Organiation’s head said on Monday.
- +Ebola: WHO Urges DRC's Neighbours To Act Immediately
“The outbreak is spreading rapidly,” Tedros told a virtual ministerial meeting on the viral haemorrhagic fever, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.
“The outbreak is spreading rapidly,” Tedros told a virtual ministerial meeting on the viral haemorrhagic fever, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
He said the current outbreak was “especially challenging”.
“First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. We are urgently scaling up operations but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,” he said by videolink from Geneva.
Secondly, the eastern provinces of the DRC, where the outbreak was first detected on May 15, “are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months (and) there is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population”.
Thirdly, he pointed out, there were “no approved vaccines or therapeutics” for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.
The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed Ebola deaths and 220 suspected deaths in the DRC since May 15. One person is confirmed dead in neighbouring Uganda
Ten African countries are at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda, the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC, warned on Saturday.
