Following a recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the World Health Organization is raising serious concerns regarding the ongoing Ebola crisis. During his visit, he met with the nation’s president, commending his efforts to combat the virus.
However, the WHO leader emphasized that current measures remain insufficient, noting that the outbreak is escalating at an unprecedented rate.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “it is already the second-biggest Ebola epidemic on record, and it is moving faster than any previous Ebola outbreak. At its current pace, it is on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016. Officially, 4,449 confirmed cases have been reported, with 2,061 deaths across five provinces and 53 health zones.”
He highlighted particular alarm over fatalities occurring in regions lacking medical treatment facilities, which significantly hinders contact tracing efforts.
“Most concerningly, we see a high proportion of deaths in communities instead of treatment units, outside of known contact lists. That tells us there are chains of transmission we don’t know about, and until we know about, and break, every chain of transmission, we will not stop the outbreak,” he added.
Driven by the Bundibugyo strain, the health agency chief warned that this current epidemic appears poised to surpass the severity of the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak.
