The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Saturday in the Democratic Republic of Congo city that has become the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, where the virus still outpaces the speed of response despite better health facilities and international assistance.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he visited a treatment center and met with local authorities, health workers and affected families.
He stressed the importance of building community trust, ensuring safe burials to prevent spread and urged countries to reconsider travel bans and border closures, saying they “discourage transparency.”
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced Ebola before, 16 times, and has ended each outbreak. This is the 17th. That history gives me real confidence,” Tedros declared during a press conference on Saturday alongside Congo’s Health Minister.
The WHO reported Friday that authorities have reported 906 suspected cases and 223 deaths. Neighboring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, the Ugandan Ministry of Health said Friday.
The Bundibugyo virus, the current type of Ebola, has no approved treatment or vaccine.
Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived on Thursday in Bunia in the province of Ituri and more shipments will come in the coming days. The United States announced $80 million in additional aid, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.
Response efforts at Rwampara and Bunia General hospitals appear more organized, with additional staff, protective equipment and medical supplies, although patients continue to arrive at all hours, according to an Associated Press reporter.
(Americans with Ebola will be taken to Europe for treatment and not to the US.)
The response has not kept pace with one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks on record, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, warned Saturday.
“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Dr. Alan González, MSF deputy director of operations, said in a statement. “No one knows the true magnitude and severity of this outbreak.”
Gonzalez called for an immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.
The dangers facing health workers have been intensified by anger among residents over strict medical protocols for handling victims’ bodies, which clash with local funeral rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.
“We are not here to tell people what to do, we are here to listen,” Tedros said on Saturday. “Building trust takes time, and it starts with listening.”
“I understand how painful it is to lose someone, and how much it means to honor them properly, but certain practices, such as touching the bodies of those who have died from Ebola, can spread the virus even further,” he noted.
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Attacks in Ituri by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hampered the response.
The disease has been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.
Uganda and Rwanda have closed their borders, while the US government banned the entry of people other than US passport holders who had recently visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan.
“I would also ask countries that have imposed travel bans or border closures to reconsider,” Tedros said, stating that such measures “discourage life-saving transparency.”
