WHO chief calls for reconsidering travel ban as DR Congo fights Ebola – World

BUNIA, DR Congo — World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday called on countries that have imposed travel bans or closed borders in response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to reconsider such measures.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Bunia, the capital of the northeastern Ituri Province and the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, Tedros said such restrictions could complicate response efforts and risk discouraging transparency and trust, which are essential to saving lives.

“I call on countries that have imposed travel bans or border closures to reconsider. These measures make the response harder, and they discourage transparency and trust that saves lives,” Tedros said.

Despite the lack of approved vaccines and specific medicines, the WHO chief said patients could still recover if they receive timely, quality medical care.

Tedros said his visit to Bunia was also aimed at engaging directly with the affected communities in this outbreak, in which over 1,000 suspected cases have been reported.

On arrival in DR Congo”s capital Kinshasa on Thursday, Tedros called for more international support for the Ebola response, saying the WHO had so far received only a third of its funding requirements.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders on Saturday warned that the latest Ebola outbreak — the 17th since 1976 — was spreading at an unprecedented pace.

“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Alan Gonzalez, deputy director of operations at the aid group, said in a statement.

The number of expert medical organizations responding to the outbreak on the ground, as well as the level of support being provided to fight the outbreak, is still far short of what is required, Gonzalez said.

The WHO said on Friday there were 906 suspected cases of Ebola in DR Congo, including 223 suspected deaths under investigation.

DR Congo’s Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said later on Friday that authorities had identified 1,028 suspected cases, with 225 confirmed.

Uganda has also reported nine confirmed cases after detecting two new infections in the capital, Kampala, the Ugandan health ministry said on Friday.

Kamba said DR Congo aims, “in the best-case scenario”, to contain and end the outbreak within “four to six months”, based on its experience in responding to epidemics and the known course of the Ebola virus disease.

He said the immediate priority is to contain the virus within the three affected provinces — Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu — and prevent further spread.

Kamba also highlighted the country’s strengthened laboratory testing capacity, with no backlog of samples remaining. Around 900 samples had been tested, of which about 260 were positive, he said, adding the country now has the capacity to process all incoming samples, even if daily testing rises to 200 or 300 samples.

Elsewhere in South America, health authorities in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state are investigating a suspected case of Ebola reported on Saturday in the state capital, officials said.

A man from DR Congo presented with a fever after recently visiting the African country, which is experiencing an Ebola outbreak.

The patient is in isolation at a hospital specializing in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the disease, authorities said in a statement.

XINHUA-AGENCIES