{"id":43235,"date":"2026-08-20T08:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43235"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:39:39","slug":"who-extends-ebola-alert-in-drc-as-cases-rise","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/who-extends-ebola-alert-in-drc-as-cases-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO extends Ebola alert in DRC as cases rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it&#8217;s extending its alert level for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to rising cases and deaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The designation of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is the highest alert for infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The disease has claimed more than 2 300 lives and infected nearly 5 000 others in northeastern DRC since mid-May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The disease has spread rapidly since May, and the number of deaths has now surpassed the fatalities from the country&#8217;s previous worst Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Health experts say the delay in detecting cases, coupled with insecurity and mistrust from some community members, has made it difficult to contain the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>The WHO is calling for a more coordinated international response to slow the spread of the disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Ebola virus in eastern and northeastern DRC is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Health workers have been providing patients with treatments to manage symptoms like headache, fever and vomiting.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists in the United Kingdom and Canada are conducting clinical trials for experimental vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain, but it will take time before any are approved for use.<\/p>\n<p>Health experts have appealed for more funding to intensify all aspects of the Ebola response as they work to try to end the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;SABC\/Chris Ocamringa&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34676,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-43235","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"WHO says it's extending its alert level for the Ebola outbreak in DRC","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43235","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\/43235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43236,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43235\/revisions\/43236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}