WHO releases emergency funds as Ebola response scales in DRC, Uganda

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released $3.9 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies and is establishing a continental Incident Management Support Team with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to scale up response efforts to the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, disclosed this on Monday during an Africa CDC ministerial briefing, saying the national risk level in DRC had been raised to “very high” due to rapid transmission and the absence of vaccines or therapeutics for the rare Bundibugyo strain.

Mr Ghebreyesus said WHO made the decision last Friday following fresh assessments showing increasing transmission risks.

The WHO chief said the organisation was finalising a multi-agency Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan aligned with national response plans for DRC and Uganda, while expanding contact tracing, treatment centres, laboratory capacity and community engagement.

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“So far, 101 cases have been confirmed in DRC with 10 confirmed deaths. In Uganda, five cases and one death have been confirmed, linked to cross-border movement,” he said.

According to him, WHO assesses regional risk as high and global risk as low, but warned bordering countries face high risk and should act immediately, according to the latest WHO update report.

He noted that the response had been complicated by insecurity in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, where fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people in recent months, worsening an already fragile humanitarian situation.

The WHO boss said that two security incidents at health facilities were reported in the past week, and distrust of outside authorities was hampering community-based interventions, according to the WHO field reports update.

He said building trust in affected communities was now one of the WHO’s highest priorities to improve outbreak response effectiveness and community engagement across affected regions in DRC and Uganda, which is urgently required.

“To address lack of countermeasures, WHO convened interim Medical Countermeasures Network last week and recommended prioritising two monoclonal antibodies for clinical trials,” he said according to WHO emergency response update report.

“The agency is also developing a trial for the antiviral obeldesivir as post-exposure prophylaxis for high-risk contacts in partnership with Africa CDC and the Collaborative Open Research Consortium on filovirus research.

“Discussions are underway with partners on candidate vaccines in the pipeline,” he said.

He said the evaluation of vaccine candidates and strengthening regional preparedness against Ebola outbreaks in DRC and Uganda was currently ongoing

Mr Ghebreyesus said he would travel to the DRC on 26 May with Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, to directly review ongoing response operations.

He also thanked President Yoweri Museveni for cancelling Uganda’s Martyrs’ Day commemoration, which attracted up to two million people, as a preventive measure against further spread of the outbreak.

“We are facing an extremely serious and difficult outbreak. It will get worse before it gets better.

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“But we know this virus, and we know how to stop it. With unity under the leadership of the governments of DRC and Uganda, and in close partnership with Africa CDC and all partners, we will stop this outbreak.”

According to him, WHO credited the governments of the DRC and Uganda for leading the response and said it remained fully committed to supporting them.

He urged neighbouring countries to strengthen surveillance, infection prevention and control, and readiness at points of entry to contain further spread.

(NAN)