World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) intensifies surveillance efforts in its Ebola response, more than 900 suspected cases have been reported so far, including 101 confirmed infections.
In Ituri province, the centre of the outbreak, nearly 5 million people are living amid ongoing conflict, with one in four requiring humanitarian assistance and one in five internally displaced, Tedros said in a post on X.
“The violence is forcing people to flee, including health and humanitarian workers. This is severely affecting efforts to strengthen Ebola contact tracing and detect infections early enough to provide proper care,” he added, noting that insecurity and fear are also increasing mistrust among local communities.
The WHO chief said that WHO and humanitarian health partners continue to operate across Ituri, including in some of the most remote and insecure regions, where communities are facing not only Ebola but also several other diseases.
Tedros stressed that providing a complete package of healthcare services is essential not only to address urgent medical needs, but also to build the trust required for an effective Ebola response, Xinhua news agency reported.
On May 16, Tedros declared that the Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the DRC and Uganda constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. On May 22, WHO raised its national risk assessment to “very high,” while maintaining the regional level at “high” and the global level at “low.”
According to the World Health Organization, Ebola is a severe and often fatal disease that affects humans and other primates.
The virus spreads to humans through wild animals such as fruit bats, porcupines, and non-human primates, and then transmits between people through direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs, or contaminated materials like bedding and clothing.
The average fatality rate of Ebola is around 50 percent, although previous outbreaks have recorded fatality rates ranging between 25 and 90 percent.
The first Ebola outbreaks were reported in remote villages of Central Africa near tropical rainforests. The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest and most complex since the virus was first identified in 1976, with more cases and deaths than all previous outbreaks combined.
With Inputs From IANS
