WHO director-general says communities must protect each other to end Ebola outbreak
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Bunia, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Saturday.
Ghebreyesus is meeting with local officials and stakeholders to thank them for their efforts, according to a post by the WHO.
Speaking to reporters, Tedros said he and other health officials are "not here to tell people what to do. We are here to listen. Communities understand their own challenges and their own solutions. Our role is to support you in implementing those solutions, together. Community ownership is what will bring this outbreak to an end."
He went on, "Certain practices, including touching the bodies of those who have died from Ebola, can spread the virus further. While we grieve for those we have lost, we must do everything we can so that we do not lose another. Protecting each other, even in grief, is one of the hardest and most important things we can do."
Tedros said the WHO will remain alongside the DRC for "as long as it takes."
"DRC has faced Ebola before, 16 times, and has ended every outbreak. This is the seventeenth. That history gives me real confidence," Tedros said.
The WHO on Friday said there are 134 confirmed cases and 18 confirmed deaths in the DRC and neighboring Uganda. There are currently 906 suspected cases in the DRC.
Tedros previously spoke to DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, saying they "agreed that community ownership of the response is a critical component for bringing the outbreak under control, and that the government’s experience in ending 16 previous Ebola outbreaks leaves it well placed to end this one."
The two also discussed "how we will use this outbreak as an opportunity to strengthen the health system in Ituri and other provinces of the country, and improve services and emergency preparedness," according to a post on his X account.
Doctors Without Borders said the Ebola outbreak in DRC is now growing at a pace unlike any previous Ebola emergency, spreading faster than response efforts can keep up.
"Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration," said Dr. Alan Gonzalez, MSF's deputy director of operations, warning that international support remains insufficient to meet the scale of the crisis.
DRC Minister of Communication Patrick Muyaya told ABC News on Friday that there is no need to panic and that the country has experience dealing with many previous Ebola outbreaks and is equipped to get this outbreak under control.
"We have experience, we have [some] of the most experienced doctors in the world dealing with this kind of strain and we have people on the ground," he told ABC News. "We are providing [information every day] so people [don't] need to be in panic. This situation is, of course, serious because it's touched people's lives."
Muyaya said the DRC has seen its first recovery in a female patient who was released from treatment after having two negative tests, a sign that the tide may be turning.
He also highlighted that Ebola is not a respiratory illness like COVID and that the disease is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients.
