World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday evening, seeking to support the medical response to the fast-growing outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo.
W.H.O. said on Friday the outbreak now includes 906 suspected infections and 223 suspected deaths.
“To come here is to really show to the community that they’re not alone. Pushing orders from my comfortable office in Geneva is easy, but I’m asking my colleagues to work with the community and I am asking communities to protect themselves,” Tedros told reporters upon his arrival in the DRC.
The W.H.O. director remained confident that the spread of Ebola “can be stopped,” but said the challenge was “very complex” due to factors like the political instability of the eastern Congo, and the unfortunate head start the virus enjoyed on epidemiologists.
Tedros released a statement to the Congolese people in which he recalled his visits to the same region during the Ebola outbreak of 2018-2020.
“I was alongside families who had lost their loved ones. I met health workers risking their lives every day. I met community leaders, traditional healers, religious leaders and business leaders who refused to abandon their people. I saw men and women show extraordinary courage in the most difficult of circumstances,” he said.
“That outbreak was one of the most complex in history. It did not unfold in a stable, peaceful environment. It happened in the middle of armed conflict, with communities displaced, supply routes disrupted, and health workers operating under constant threat,” he recalled.
Tedros said the ultimate success of the 2020 containment effort should give people hope that Ebola can once again be defeated under difficult circumstances, but added that he understood why people felt so much fear and despair this time around.
“I know that many of you are exhausted. You are already carrying so much: malaria, hunger, insecurity, and the daily struggle to keep your families safe. And now Ebola. It is not fair, and I will not pretend otherwise,” he said.
Tedros repeated W.H.O.’s call for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Congo, and asked rebel groups to work with medical organizations to contain the danger.
“Children are sick. Families are suffering. No cause, no conflict, no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease. A ceasefire, even a temporary one, would save lives. I urge you, I implore you: give us the space to help the people who need it most,” he said.
Tedros tactfully acknowledged that the behavior of eastern Congolese residents has made the outbreak worse, including their deep suspicion of medical organizations, their tendency to conceal infections instead of reporting them, and their increasingly alarming habit of attacking Ebola treatment centers to claim the bodies of victims for funerals.
“Trust must be earned, it cannot be assumed. We have not always done things correctly. But I promise you, we are here to learn as much as we are here to help,” he said.
W.H.O. researcher Anais Legand said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday that an Ebola patient in the DRC has fully recovered and was discharged on Thursday — a sign of hope, but also a grim reminder of the Bundibugyo strain’s lethality as this was the first confirmed case of someone recovering from an infection in the current outbreak.
Legand said five more patients are expected to recover, and stressed that early detection and treatment are the key to surviving Ebola Bundibugyo. W.H.O. has calculated the fatality rate from the outbreak at 30 percent to 50 percent, depending on how many of the suspected infections are confirmed.
There is currently no effective vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. According to Legand, several treatments are under evaluation, including monoclonal antibodies and the antiviral medication Remdesivir. Vaccines under development by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Oxford University have also shown promise.
“As for whether the peak has passed, investigations are still ongoing. I don’t think we can say that at this stage,” she said.
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