The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa had a “significant lead”, which the humanitarian response is currently catching up with.
Journalist at HLN
Source: Belga
“The epidemic has taken a significant lead and we are still lagging behind,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva. He stressed that the international humanitarian response, led by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is “catching up”.
On May 15, the new Ebola outbreak was declared, the seventeenth in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The WHO CEO has been in the DRC in recent days, including in the Ituri region, the epicenter of the outbreak with the Bundibugyo variant. “I am very encouraged by the level of commitment I have seen everywhere I have been. What I have seen has given me hope, even as challenges remain,” said Tedros.
He has repeatedly explained in recent weeks that the late detection of the first cases, the insecurity in the affected regions, the distrust of part of the population and the lack of a vaccine significantly complicate the management of the epidemic. He emphasized this again on Wednesday.
The WHO’s risk assessment remains unchanged: very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low at the global level, Tedros said.