WHO chief urges stronger Congo response as Ebola outbreak widens

The head of the World Health Organization has ended his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo after briefing President Felix Tshisekedi on the response to the Ebola outbreak, as an aid agency warned that the true scale of the crisis is likely far larger than official figures suggest.

The outbreak, already the third-largest on record, went undetected for several weeks, according to health officials. That delay has left response teams struggling to catch up as they work to contain the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Congo last week and called for stronger international support to stop the disease from spreading. He later travelled to Ituri province, where the first cases were confirmed.

Tedros said he had seen some encouraging signs, including five certified recoveries, but stressed the need to expand testing and treatment capacity and build trust between communities and health workers.

“This Ebola can be stopped when the community owns the agenda and with strong government leadership,” he said after meeting Tshisekedi in Kinshasa on Monday.

“We need to strengthen the capacity of the health systems in the affected areas,” he added.

Tedros was expected to return to Geneva after the meeting.

Aid agency warns outbreak may be far larger than official data

In a joint statement on Sunday night, the WHO and the Congolese government acknowledged that the country was facing “a challenging time”, with health workers under pressure to detect and isolate cases, trace contacts and promote safe burials.

The WHO said on Friday that Congo had recorded 906 suspected Ebola cases, including 223 suspected deaths under investigation.

The Congolese government said late on Sunday that confirmed cases had risen to 282, with 42 deaths, after 19 new positive tests were recorded.

According to data distributed by the communications ministry, there have been 264 confirmed cases in Ituri province, 15 in North Kivu and three in South Kivu.

All three provinces have been affected by armed conflict, which has caused mass displacement and further complicated the Ebola response.

The security situation remains volatile. A weekend attack by fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group linked to Islamic State, killed 15 civilians and a soldier in Beni, North Kivu, the government said on Monday.

Ebola cases have also been confirmed in neighbouring Uganda.

The International Rescue Committee warned on Monday that the outbreak was likely far more advanced than official figures indicate.

The aid agency said the virus may have been spreading for up to three months before the first official cases were detected in mid-May. It also warned that only 20% of contacts are currently being traced, making it difficult for health authorities to identify and isolate new transmission chains.

“When four out of five contacts are not being traced, it becomes incredibly difficult to contain the outbreak or even understand its true scale,” said Rachel Howard, the IRC’s senior technical emergency health adviser.

Although Congolese officials have extensive experience in responding to Ebola, they have far less experience with the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the current outbreak. There is currently no approved vaccine for this strain.

Global health organisation CEPI will provide about US$60 million to Moderna and two other groups to accelerate the development of vaccines against Ebola Bundibugyo. CEPI told Reuters that vaccines targeting the strain could be ready for trials within a few months.

China also said on Monday that it would send a team of medical specialists to Congo to help with the outbreak response.

Brazil rules out two suspected Ebola cases

Brazilian authorities said on Monday that two suspected Ebola cases had tested negative for the virus.

The suspected cases emerged over the weekend in patients with related symptoms who had recently been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the current outbreak is centred, and neighbouring Uganda, which has also reported cases.

Both patients in Brazil had tested positive for other diseases, but local authorities waited for Ebola test results before ruling out infection.

In São Paulo state, authorities said no Ebola genetic material was found in tests on a 37-year-old man who had arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo and had already tested positive for meningitis.

In Rio de Janeiro, a patient who had recently travelled to Uganda also tested negative for Ebola, health research institute Fiocruz and city authorities said in separate statements. The patient had tested positive for malaria.

Sources: Reuters