The Executive Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, has warned that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reached the highest level of seriousness and requires a coordinated global response.
Speaking in an interview on ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Ihekweazu said the outbreak had met the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to its severity and spread beyond the DRC.
“This event, this outbreak, is serious. It requires a coordinated international response. Sadly, it has already spread to other countries. All the criteria have been fulfilled,” he said.
He noted that the outbreak was already affecting multiple provinces in the DRC and had recorded more than 300 confirmed cases.
“This is the third time an Ebola outbreak has met this criteria. So, you know, we’re in a difficult position. There are over 300 confirmed cases already. It’s spread out around three provinces in the DRC. A province in the DRC is about the size of a state in Nigeria. So the outbreak is really ahead of us right now,” he said.
Ihekweazu said WHO and its partners were intensifying efforts to contain the outbreak but stressed that the situation remained extremely serious.
“What we’re doing is working very hard to scale up our response in order to contain it. So how serious is it? It is a very serious event. It’s at the highest level of seriousness, if I can use that word, requiring a global response in solidarity with the people of the DRC,” he said.
He called on countries around the world to support the response effort, saying international solidarity would be critical to bringing the outbreak under control.
“It means that everyone around the world has to pull their resources together to support this country during this difficult time for them,” he said.
While acknowledging concerns about cross-border transmission, Ihekweazu said Uganda remains the only country outside the DRC to have recorded confirmed Ebola cases linked to the current outbreak.
“There have been a few confirmed cases in Uganda. All of them are linked back to the cluster here in the DRC. All are secondary cases from the exported case to Uganda,” he said.
He added that controlling the outbreak at its source remained the best way to protect other countries from potential spread.
“The hope for the rest of the world we live in now is controlling this outbreak here. We can protect every other country around the world if we focus our energies in controlling the outbreak itself. And that’s really what we’re focusing on at the moment,” he said.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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