The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) arrived in Bunia, eastern Congo, on Saturday, a city at the centre of a rare Ebola outbreak where the virus continues to spread faster than efforts to contain it, despite improved health facilities and fresh aid deliveries.
WHO Director-General Visits Epicentre
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is scheduled to visit a treatment centre and hold meetings with local authorities, healthcare workers and affected families in Bunia. "The best way to address this is to provide all the necessary support to fight the disease at its epicentre and to continue offering every assistance needed," Tedros told reporters on Friday evening.
The WHO confirmed on Friday that authorities have recorded 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Neighbouring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, according to the Ugandan ministry of health.
No Approved Treatment or Vaccine
The Bundibugyo virus, the strain of Ebola currently circulating, has no approved treatment or vaccine. "This is a difficult situation, and we recognise that. But the Democratic Republic of Congo has faced the Ebola virus many times before. We are confident that it can once again bring this outbreak under control," Tedros said on Friday, following talks with Congo's Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka.
Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri, the epicentre of Congo's Ebola outbreak, on Thursday, with further shipments anticipated over the following eight days. The US announced $80 million in additional aid on the same day, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.
Response Efforts Under Strain
Response efforts at Bunia's Rwampara and General hospitals appear better coordinated, with extra staff, protective equipment and medical supplies now in place, though patients continue to arrive around the clock, according to an AP reporter on Friday. However, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Saturday that the response has failed to keep pace with one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks on record.
"Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration," said Dr Alan Gonzalez, MSF's deputy director of operations, in a statement. "Nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak," he added, urging immediate expansion of testing, swifter deployment of aid workers and uninterrupted access for medical supplies.
Challenges from Local Resistance and Conflict
The dangers facing health workers have been compounded by local residents' frustration over strict medical protocols governing the handling of victims' bodies, which conflict with traditional burial customs. Residents have launched at least three attacks on health centres as a result. Raids in Ituri by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group aligned with the Islamic State, along with a coalition of ethnic militias, have also hampered relief efforts.
The illness has also been recorded in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group holds control over numerous key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have confirmed two cases.
Border Closures and Travel Bans
Uganda and Rwanda have shut their borders, while the Trump administration last week prohibited entry to non-US passport holders who had recently travelled to Congo, Uganda or South Sudan. On Friday, Tedros declared border closures and travel bans "not effective at all" in halting the spread of the outbreak. "Closing borders, as some countries have done, only discourages transparency. The Democratic Republic of Congo is reporting the situation openly and transparently," he said, urging nations to reconsider these restrictions.
