WHO's Tedros visits DR Congo as Ebola outbreak accelerates

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization's director-general visited Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), amid an accelerating Ebola outbreak. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted that the 17th Ebola outbreak in DRC's history, currently the fastest-spreading and second-largest on record, was spreading faster than the response could keep up.

His visit coincided with a health scare in the Maluku municipality in northeastern Kinshasa, where a passenger on a ship with Ebola-like symptoms had died. WHO officials were conducting measures to isolate and test those on board, which was mainly carrying timber but also around 200 people.

Tedros emphasized that new cases were doubling in some hotspots over the past week, and urgent scaling up of all response efforts was necessary. He stressed the importance of reaching every affected community despite insecurity and displacement, improving coordination, ensuring health workers have the needed protection and support, and accelerating access to care, surveillance, and safe burials.

According to the most recent data, there have been 3,874 confirmed cases with 1,751 deaths as of Monday, with the majority of cases in the eastern Ituri province.

Tedros' visit came as the US State Department pledged an additional $242 million in funding for the outbreak's response, preparedness, and humanitarian assistance. The State Department maintained its Travel Advisory status for the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan at Level 4 - Do Not Travel. Doctors Without Borders warned that the outbreak's rare strain was spreading alarmingly and at an unprecedented rate in a remote area of DRC with poor infrastructure.

The response was expanding but not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains, and many health workers went on strike due to disputes over pay or non-payment. Dr. Jean Kaseya from the Africa Centers for Disease Control warned that contact tracing was not working, and more cases were being detected late, reducing survival chances.

The Bundibugyo strain, the rare Ebolavirus causing this outbreak, has no approved treatment or vaccine. Researchers are conducting hurried trials of candidate vaccines and treatments. Early cases were likely misdiagnosed as conditions like peritonitis, and local funeral practices contributed to the virus's spread.