Cases of Ebola, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have so far been found in five DRC provinces, as well as in neighbouring Uganda, though the vast majority are in Ituri.<\/p>\n
Tedros hailed the rapid ramping-up of the response to the outbreak, pointing out that treatment capacity in northeastern DRC now stood at 800 beds, while laboratory capacity had jumped from a single lab to 16.<\/p>\n
Ebola outpacing response<\/p>\n
But he warned that \u201cdespite the progress we have made, the outbreak in DRC is continuing to outpace the response\u201d.<\/p>\n
The WHO chief highlighted that over 80% of new cases were being detected \u201coutside known contact lists, showing that transmission chains are still being missed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout two-thirds of deaths are occurring in communities, among people who never receive care in a health facility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Complicating things further, the current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.<\/p>\n
But Tedros hailed \u201cencouraging progress on vaccines and therapeutics\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trials for two potential treatments for Bundibugyo patients \u2013 the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir \u2013 have also been underway in Ituri since July 2.<\/p>\n
And the first safety trial began on Monday for the ChAdOx1 vaccine, led by the University of Oxford, Tedros said.<\/p>\n
And on Tuesday, a trial of the antiviral obeldesivir began to test its effectiveness in post-exposure prophylaxis for people who had come in contact with confirmed Bundibugyo cases but had yet to develop the disease.<\/p>\n
Even without approved vaccines and treatments, 377 people have recovered in the DRC, said Tedros, \u201cshowing that with early diagnosis and safe care, this disease can be survived and stopped\u201d.<\/p>\n
Treatment centre attacked<\/p>\n
The WHO chief said that one of the biggest concerns remained \u201cthe complex environment in which the outbreak is happening\u201d, with the vast majority of cases found in conflict-torn Ituri.<\/p>\n
\u201cActive armed conflict is hampering access to the affected areas, and hindering the response,\u201d he said, pointing out that on Wednesday, a treatment centre \u201cwas attacked\u201d in Ituri\u2019s capital Bunia.<\/p>\n
The main priorities, he said, included reducing transmission in Ituri by strengthening surveillance; safe and dignified burials of highly infectious bodies of deceased Ebola patients; and clinical management of the sick.<\/p>\n
To do this, he stressed the urgent need for more support from the international community, pointing to \u201ca shortfall of more than US$400 million ($685.2m)\u201d for a joint plan put forward by the WHO and the African Centres for Disease Control to address the outbreak.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cases of Ebola, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have so far been found in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[112671,8425,6659,19067,2837,23268,63059,134,185,130,111,139,69,4989,17976,5351,29058,23269,1517,67662,131,1361,8431,8222,1299,377],"class_list":["post-530687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-any","tag-congo","tag-deadly","tag-democratic","tag-during","tag-ebola","tag-faster","tag-health","tag-is","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-organisation","tag-outbreak","tag-previous","tag-quickly","tag-republic","tag-reveals","tag-spreading","tag-than","tag-that","tag-virus","tag-warned","tag-who","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530687","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=530687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}