Ebola is spreading rapidly and the World Health Organization is expanding the response

This latest outbreak of the deadly disease – which the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern – is spreading faster than health workers can contain it.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Which is the epicenter of the epidemicThe World Health Organization raised the national risk assessment level from “high” to “very high”; Neighboring countries – including Uganda, where five cases and one death have been confirmed – also face a particularly high risk.

Setting fire to treatment centers

Efforts to respond to the disease face obstacles to progress, especially in the restive eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, due to the local community’s lack of trust in external authorities, which greatly increases the risk of transmission. In recent days, two treatment centers were set on fire in that region, which is already suffering from violent clashes that have caused the displacement of more than 100,000 people.

In this context, Marie-Roslyn Belisaire, Director of Emergency Response at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, told UN News that these attacks are linked to disinformation campaigns being circulated through social media, which significantly slows down the pace of investigation of cases, and limits the ability of health care teams to reach affected communities.

Although the outbreak dates back nearly 20 years, there are still no approved vaccines or treatments for Bundibugyo virus.

The World Health Organization has recommended that two antibodies be prioritized in clinical trials, and that the antiviral drug Ubildevir be evaluated in a clinical trial as a treatment for people considered high-risk contacts.

WHO is urgently scaling up its field operations, including contact tracing, establishing treatment centres, strengthening laboratory capacity, case management, infection prevention and control, risk education and community engagement.