The World Health Organization raised the alarm Thursday about a growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and warned of an impending shortage of funds to combat the deadly disease.
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The funeral of an Ebola virus victim in Butembo, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province, in 2019.
The organization said 56 cases have been reported in the province of Ecuador, which is greater than the total number of cases registered in the province’s last outbreak in 2018.
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Efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic have complicated the response to the Ebola outbreak, according to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
“We must not allow Covid-19 to distract us from addressing other urgent health threats,” said Dr. Moeti. “The current Ebola outbreak is facing headwinds because the cases are scattered in remote areas in dense rain forests.”
The WHO said in a statement that it has mobilized $ 1.75 million to combat the Ebola outbreak, which was declared on June 1, but will only last for a few more weeks. She called for additional funds to help with vaccinations, tests, contact tracing, treatment, and health education.
Another Ebola outbreak in the east of the country was declared on June 25 after two years and 2,280 deaths.
Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO emergency health program, which has worked extensively on Ebola, said Monday that as of July 12, there were 17 deaths from confirmed Ebola cases and three more from suspected cases.
He said that while the numbers may seem low, the threat of spread is troubling, especially due to extreme logistical problems for health workers to access remote and affected communities.
“Any one of those individual cases can result in disease amplification,” he said.
Dr. Moeti said that more than 12,000 people have been vaccinated at Equator in the six weeks since the outbreak began, beginning four days after the outbreak was declared.
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