Ebola fight in DRC ‘far from over,’ warns WHO chief

Despite “encouraging signs” in the fight against the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), efforts to wipe out the virus in the east of the country are “far from over”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In an online news conference, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists cases were surging in North Kivu province as officials raced to control the spread of “many outbreaks in many places”.

Tedros said the number of weekly cases had doubled over the past two weeks from 100 to more than 200 cases in North Kivu.

“The area is so vast that it’s hard to speak of a single epidemic,” Tedros added.

Tedros said that transmission was declining in the worst-affected areas of Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, while South Kivu has not reported any new cases since May.

“But make no mistake, the epidemic continues to grow and continues to kill”, Tedros warned.

Battling the outbreak has been complicated by the emergence of a rare strain of Ebola known as the Bundibugyo virus, which has no known cure.

WHO said treatment trials and the development of post-exposure prophylaxis were picking up speed.