<\/p>\n
The Africa CDC and the WHO have called for stronger community-led action to contain the Ebola outbreak in the DRC.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The call followed a joint high-level mission to Uganda and the DRC on August 4 and 5, led by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya and WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Janabi.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The delegation visited Kampala, Bunia and Kinshasa, meeting national and provincial authorities, response teams, health workers, community representatives and partners.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Uganda was commended after declaring the end of its outbreak on July 28. The country recorded 20 confirmed cases and two deaths, while all listed contacts completed follow-up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Africa CDC and WHO said Uganda\u2019s experience showed that early detection, rapid contact tracing, national coordination, trusted community engagement and cross-border surveillance can contain transmission.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The delegation then visited Bunia in Ituri Province, the epicentre of the DRC outbreak, where communities and health workers are operating amid insecurity, population movement, misinformation, poor road access and pressure on health services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The organisations said Ituri accounts for nearly 90% of confirmed cases in the DRC, with Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu among the most affected health zones.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As of August 4, the DRC had reported 3 973 confirmed cases, 1 801 deaths and 776 recoveries across 51 health zones in five provinces.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the latest 24-hour reporting period, 99 new confirmed cases and 52 deaths were recorded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Africa CDC and WHO said contact follow-up stood at 75%, below the operational target of at least 95% needed to identify transmission chains quickly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A total of 674 people were under care, while treatment-centre occupancy in North Kivu had reached 139%. \u201cIn some areas of eastern DRC, the Ebola outbreak is outpacing our response, making it imperative that we rapidly scale up every aspect of our efforts to contain it,\u201d Tedros said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tedros said the response must be backed by resources, safe access for responders and stronger international support. \u201cWe stand in solidarity with the Government, affected communities, and the courageous health workers serving under exceptionally difficult circumstances,\u201d Tedros said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kaseya said communities must be placed at the centre of the response. \u201cContaining and ultimately stopping this outbreak will come from communities,\u201d Kaseya said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people have information they trust, can report symptoms early and seek care without fear, we can break every chain of transmission,\u201d Kaseya said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Africa CDC and WHO called for earlier case identification, stronger contact tracing, expanded testing, treatment, laboratory, ambulance and safe burial capacity, and better support for frontline workers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The organisations also called for sustained cross-border surveillance and warned against unnecessary restrictions on travel or trade.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41843,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-41842","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called for an urgent scale-up of the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warning that the outbreak is outpacing operations in parts of the east.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called for an urgent scale-up of the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warning that the outbreak is outpacing operations in parts of the east.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41844,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41842\/revisions\/41844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}