Six tons of medical supplies to fight Ebola are set to arrive in \u200bthe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u00a0 this Tuesday but limited testing capacity was \u200cslowing the response to the outbreak, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said.<\/p>\n
The WHO says there have been at least 500 suspected cases and 130 suspected deaths from \u200bEbola, which has also spread to neighbouring Uganda.<\/p>\n
“We have sent 12 \u200btons of supply. An additional six are arriving today. These \u2060include personal protective equipment for frontline health workers (and) samples,” said Anne \u200bAncia, WHO Representative in DRC’s Ituri province.<\/p>\n
Ancia said there was “great uncertainty” about the \u200bextent and scale of the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, and efforts were under way to increase surveillance, testing and contact tracing.<\/p>\n
She said testing for the \u200bBundibugyo strain was limited, with only six tests an hour possible. The \u200boutbreak took weeks to detect, she said, partly because tests used in the outbreak zone \u200cwere \u2060designed for the more common Zaire strain.<\/p>\n
“The surveillance capacity and investigation capacity are very limited in this region in general,” she added.
\nAncia said funding shortages were having a tremendous impact on the WHO’s ability to fight \u200bEbola.<\/p>\n
The United States \u200b(US) officially left the \u2060WHO in January and under President Donald Trump has slashed global health spending, but cooperation with the US on fighting \u200bthe outbreak was working “very, very well”, Ancia said.<\/p>\n
“We understand \u200bthat we \u2060cannot receive the funding, it’s okay, but we want to keep talking, we want to keep exchanging information, and we want to collaborate,” she said.<\/p>\n
The \u2060United Nations humanitarian \u200boffice OCHA said that it had only \u200breceived 34% of $1.4 billion in funding for its appeal for the DRC \u200bthis year, adding that more than half came from Washington.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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