Ebola in DR Congo ‘extremely dangerous’

The Director-General of the World Health Organization warned Monday that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing a “very serious and complex” outbreak of the Ebola virus, calling on neighboring countries to act “immediately.”

Many aspects of this pandemic “make its management particularly complex,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an online ministerial meeting organized by the African Union health agency.

He added, “First, the delay in detecting the epidemic means that we are now trying to catch up with an epidemic that is spreading very quickly. We are urgently intensifying operations, but at the present time, the epidemic is spreading faster than us.”

The UN official is scheduled to visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday, accompanied by the Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, Chikwe Ihekweazo, an epidemiologist specializing in infectious diseases.

On May 15, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an Ebola epidemic, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment, and the resulting death rate reaches 50%. The World Health Organization has issued an international health warning.

“So far, 101 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 10 confirmed deaths. But we know that the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is much larger. There are now more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths,” Tedros explained.

He continued, “But we know this virus, and we know how to stop it… The only question is how quickly we can achieve this, and how many lives will be lost in the meantime.”

This is the seventeenth Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On Friday, the World Health Organization raised its assessment of public health risks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from “high” to “very high,” the highest level. The organization still considers risks to be “high” at the regional level and “low” at the global level.

For its part, the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the Continental Health Agency) warned on Saturday that ten African countries were threatened by the Ebola virus, in addition to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the epidemic, and its neighbor, Uganda.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Countries bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo are particularly threatened, and must act immediately. In Uganda, five cases of infection have been confirmed and one death has been recorded.”

But he did not detail the measures these countries should take, but on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization supports national authorities, especially in contact tracing, establishing treatment centers, and raising awareness about risks.