WHO says Ebola outbreak in Congo is outpacing response as Uganda reports more cases

KINSHASA: The World Health Organisation said on Monday that the Ebola outbreak centred in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading faster than the current response, with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reporting 220 suspected deaths and warning that delays in identifying infections had left health teams trying to catch up.

The WHO has classified the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola as a public health emergency of international concern. The disease is a severe viral infection transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids and can lead to heavy bleeding and organ failure. According to the WHO, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain.

Tedros said the response was being intensified but cautioned that the outbreak was moving quickly. He also urged countries neighbouring Congo, the centre of the outbreak, to act without delay. In a statement on social media, he said surveillance efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo had identified more than 900 suspected cases so far, including 101 confirmed infections.

Referring to the pace of the outbreak, Tedros said responders were now dealing with the consequences of late detection of cases.

“We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us,”

Tedros said he would travel to Congo on Tuesday. He said the response was being made more difficult by insecurity in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, as well as the absence of approved vaccines for the Bundibugyo virus.

Uganda confirms two additional cases

Uganda’s health ministry said on Monday that the country had confirmed two more Ebola cases, taking its total to seven. The ministry said both newly confirmed patients are Ugandan health workers employed at a private health facility in the capital, Kampala.

According to the ministry’s statement, both patients were moved to a designated treatment unit and were receiving care. It added that response teams were tracing all people who had come into contact with them.

Uganda shares a border with Congo’s Ituri province, one of the areas cited by the WHO chief as being affected by insecurity during the outbreak response.