Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo ‘spreading rapidly’ – WHO chief

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was revising upwards to “very high” its assessment of the risk within DR Congo, which had previously been deemed as high.

The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.

The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, “but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger”.

Supplies were being rushed to the province of Ituri in the north-eastern corner of the country, where the illness has been spreading for weeks in areas where many people have been displaced by armed conflict.

Frontline medical staff have struggled with a lack of resources and, in some cases, pushback due to what has been characterised as misinformation or situations where medical policy has clashed with local customs such as burial rites.

On Thursday, an Ebola treatment centre in Rwampara was set on fire by youths who were angered when they were blocked from retrieving the body of a friend who apparently had died of Ebola, according to witnesses and police.

Bodies of Ebola victims can be highly contagious, and medical authorities are trying to control burials whenever possible.

Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, a local aid group, said the population’s anger is mostly due to misinformation.

“We have lived through years and years of conflict and hardship so rumours spread easily,” she said.

She said some churches have told their large congregations that the outbreak is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.

The United Nations said Friday it released 60 million dollars from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in DR Congo and in the region.

The US has pledged 23 million dollars in funding to bolster the response in DR Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions.

But Ugandan authorities said on Thursday on X they were not aware of any treatment centre being set up by the US.

Ms Lusenge said her group’s small hospital near the Ituri provincial capital of Bunia lacks basic protective equipment as health workers struggle to respond to the outbreak.

Patients showing symptoms are first examined at the hospital before being referred to a larger treatment centre, exposing nurses and doctors to possible infection, she said.

“We have made requests to different partners, but we have not yet really received anything,” Ms Lusenge said. “We only have hand sanitiser and a few masks for the nurses, but we need much more than that.”

Both the WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDP) believe the outbreak is larger than the cases detected so far.

“I expect the number of cases to increase as surveillance becomes more and more rigorous,” Africa CDP director-general Jean Kaseya said.

The region’s already-weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say.

Armed conflict in the region further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. There are more than 920,000 internally displaced people in the province of Ituri, according to the UN.

Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the so-called Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday in Alima, a village in Ituri.

“The outbreak can still be contained but the window for action is narrow,” said Gabriela Arenas, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “What happens in the coming days in homes, in communities and across borders will matter enormously.”