The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned this Wednesday about the need to urgently and massively intensify the response to what has become the deadliest Ebola outbreak recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“The outbreak is spreading faster than we can scale up our response, and new cases have doubled in some disease hotspots just during the last week,” Tedros said in a social media message.
In his post, he also called to “urgently and massively intensify all efforts, in all response pillars and by all partners”.
This implies, as he specified, reaching “all affected communities despite insecurity and displacements,” strengthening coordination under government leadership, ensuring that health workers have the protection, training, and support they need, and accelerating access to healthcare, surveillance, and dignified and safe burials.
According to the latest report from the National Institute of Public Health of the DRC, to date 3,874 confirmed cases have been recorded, of which 717 are in isolation or hospitalized.
Likewise, the health authority noted that while 749 patients have recovered since the start of the pandemic, 1,751 have lost their lives due to the disease, raising the mortality rate to 45.1%.
This outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is still no approved vaccine, was declared on May 15 and, according to the health institute, remains in the five affected provinces: Haut-Uélé, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tshopo, with 51 health zones impacted by the virus.
