{"id":439423,"date":"2026-05-22T03:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439423\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:59:13","slug":"urgent-response-needed-to-protect-children-as-ebola-takes-hold-in-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439423\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent Response Needed To Protect Children As Ebola Takes Hold In DRC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, 22 May 2026, 10:03 am
Press Release: World Vision<\/a><\/p>\n

World Vision warns that children in the Democratic
\nRepublic of the Congo are at grave risk as a new strain of
\nEbola sweeps the nation.<\/p>\n

Last week the government of
\nthe Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared a new
\nEbola outbreak, with the number of suspected cases rising
\nquickly into the hundreds.<\/p>\n

The outbreak is centered in
\nthe Ituri Province which is home to nearly one million
\ninternally displaced people, many of them living in
\novercrowded sites where water is scarce and healthcare is
\nlimited.<\/p>\n

The National Director for World Vision in the
\nDRC Philippe Guiton says the new outbreak marks a dangerous
\nturning point because there is no known vaccine for the
\ncurrent Bundibugyo (BVD) strain
\n.<\/p>\n

“This new outbreak comes amid an
\nalready fragile humanitarian situation in the DRC and
\nchildren are among the groups most exposed to this health
\nthreat.<\/p>\n

“World Vision is taking measures to limit the
\nspread of this outbreak and save lives, particularly through
\nhygiene promotion, strengthening infection prevention and
\ncontrol, and supporting families in displacement sites where
\nthe risk of transmission is highest,” he says.<\/p>\n

World
\nVision has a long history of responding to Ebola outbreaks,
\nnot only in DRC, but also in Uganda, Sierra Leone, and West
\nAfrica. In these cases, World Vision trained faith leaders
\nand motorbike riders to deliver life-saving health messages
\nand address misinformation in remote
\ncommunities.<\/p>\n

Guiton says the organisation has learned
\nlessons from the 2018-2019 outbreak in Eastern DRC when fear
\nand misinformation spread rapidly.<\/p>\n

Advertisement – scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

“In previous
\noutbreaks, families hid symptoms, but with the right
\napproach we saw communities overcome fear, rebuild trust,
\nand protect their children. We know what is possible, but we
\nneed more support to take action.<\/p>\n

“A new Ebola variant
\nwith no available vaccine is a threat we cannot afford to
\nignore. The lives of thousands of children depend on what we
\ndo next,” he says.<\/p>\n

World Vision DRC\u2019s East Zone
\nDirector, David Munkley, says time is of the essence and
\nit\u2019s vital the international community band together to
\nsupport the response in the DRC.<\/p>\n

“Actue malnutrition
\nis already rife in Ituri region which further weakens
\npeople\u2019s immune systems and this combined with extremely
\nlimited access to healthcare in remote areas means children
\nand families are at great risk. A rapid and coordinated
\nresponse will help save lives and reach the greatest number
\nof affected people,” he says.<\/p>\n

Munkley says World
\nVision is calling for urgent international support to fund
\nhealth workers, community mobilisation, and protective
\nequipment in Ituri province.<\/p>\n

New Zealanders wanting to
\nsupport World Vision\u2019s work in the DRC can give here: www.wvnz.org.nz\/CHR<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, 22 May 2026, 10:03 amPress Release: World Vision World Vision warns that children in the Democratic Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34040,24633,134,196085,92568,111,139,69,11112,377,224528,224527],"class_list":["post-439423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-charities","tag-child-and-youth-issues","tag-health","tag-humanitarianism","tag-informative","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-scoop","tag-world","tag-world-africa","tag-world-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}