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WHO briefs press about Ebola situation in DR Congo

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The World Health Organization (WHO) briefed the press about the situation on Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) at a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday.

The response to the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has been encouraging, and vaccinating should start at the weekend, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

He said he returned from a DRC visit to assess the situation there on Monday and spoke to journalists one day after WHO reported a new case of the Ebola virus had been confirmed in an area of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2 million people in northwestern DRC.

The DRC Health Ministry on Friday announced 11 new confirmed Ebola cases in the northwest of the country.
The total number of Ebola cases in the DRC is now 45, including 10 suspected cases, 21 probable cases and 14 confirmed cases, according to a statement issued by the health ministry late Thursday.

The first batch of 4,000 doses of Ebola vaccine has be transported to Kinshasa, capital of DR Congo, on Wednesday and will be delivered to the worst-affected town next Monday at the soonest.
Those who have contacted with suspected Ebola carriers and medical workers will be the first to receive the vaccines.
The second batch was also shipped to Kinshasa Friday.

WHO Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama said the vaccine has proven effective.
“Part of our response now in all major outbreaks is looking at the research agenda and the agenda for products that may be investigational but have proven to be safe and effective and that’s really the auspices under which we’re using the Ebola vaccine, which is also an investigational product but has proven safe and effective,” said Salama.

WHO said the first Ebola case in northwestern city Mbandaka implies the possible spreading of Ebola and it has dispatched about 30 experts to monitor the situation in the city and cooperate with other organizations for prevention, treatment, quarantine and case reports.

WHO’ s Chairman of Emergency Committee Robert Steffen warned “the risk of international spread is particularly great”.
“Because the city of Mbandaka is in proximity of the Congo River. You can travel on it to Kinshasa and across the border to Congo-Brazzaville. And that of course has significant regional traffic across various porous borders there,” he explained.
Meanwhile, nine neighboring countries have been alerted on the dangerous epidemic disease.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, also introduced the 71st WHO Assembly to be held in Geneva from May 21 to 26 and said by 2023, WHO aims to realize the goal of triple billion targets.

“That’s one billion more people benefiting from health coverage, one billion more people better protected from healthy emergencies, and one billion more people enjoying better health and wellbeing,” he said.

Ebola is a highly infectious disease spread through contact with even small amounts of bodily fluid of an infected person. Its early flu-like symptoms are not always easy to detect.

The Ebola epidemic hit Africa between late 2013 and 2016, causing more than 11,000 deaths in nearly 30,000 cases, according to UN statistics.

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