The head of the World Health Organization has urged communities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to take a central role in efforts to contain the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, as health authorities reported more than 1,000 suspected cases.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Congo on Thursday to help coordinate the response. By Friday, Congolese authorities had recorded 1,028 suspected cases linked to the outbreak.
Speaking after arriving in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and one of the areas at the centre of the outbreak, Tedros said local communities were essential to stopping the spread of the disease.
“The communities understand the problems better and they know the solution as well,” he told reporters.
He said the response was being led by the Congolese government with support from international partners, but stressed that community ownership remained critical.
“That’s why we are here to discuss with the community to see how the response is running and, if there are challenges, to help,” Tedros said.
After arriving in Kinshasa on Thursday, Tedros also appealed for more international funding, saying the WHO had received only about a third of the money needed for its Ebola response.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, warned on Saturday that the outbreak was spreading at an unusually rapid pace.
“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Alan Gonzalez, MSF’s deputy director of operations, said in a statement.
Gonzalez said the number of expert medical organisations on the ground, as well as the overall level of support for the response, remained far below what was needed.
The latest outbreak is Congo’s 17th since Ebola was first identified in 1976.