WHO urges strengthened Ebola outbreak response in Congo

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed the need to strengthen efforts to tackle the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid the virus’s accelerating spread. “I am in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and have met with health and humanitarian partners supporting the Ebola response to discuss the challenges we face. This outbreak is spreading faster than our response, with the number of new cases doubling at some key hotspots in just one week. We all agree that all response efforts must be immediately and massively strengthened across all response lines, involving all partners,” Ghebreyesus said via the X platform on Wednesday. According to him, these measures include providing assistance to all affected communities despite security constraints and population displacement. “That means reaching all affected communities despite security issues and population displacement, strengthening coordination under government leadership, ensuring health workers receive the protection, training, and support they need, and accelerating access to care, surveillance, and dignified, safe burial services,” he said. On 17 May, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. The United Nations agency assessed the risk of the virus spreading in the region as high. On Saturday, the WHO stated that the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was occurring so rapidly that it had become the largest outbreak in the country’s history. According to the latest data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Health, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country has reached 3,748, with 1,657 deaths.