The military governor of the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Ituri province, the epicentre of the current Ebola outbreak, has likened the struggle to contain the spread of the virus to a \u201cwar\u201d for which they are lacking resources to fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in affected areas are not receiving enough food,\u201d Johnny Luboya Nkashama told French broadcaster RFI, adding that \u201cother diseases\u201d and \u201covercrowding\u201d are also issues.<\/p>\n
He called for a \u201cswift response\u201d, including strengthening the capacity of staff to prevent Ituri \u201cfrom descending into catastrophe\u201d.<\/p>\n
Officials say there are more than 900 suspected cases of Ebola, and 220 suspected deaths, since the outbreak was declared on 15 May.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the disease may be spreading faster than originally thought and has declared a public health emergency of international concern.<\/p>\n
On Monday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is due to travel to DR Congo, has said the Ebola outbreak is outpacing urgent efforts to scale up a response adding that responders were \u201cplaying catch-up\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ebola has also been reported in DR Congo\u2019s North and South Kivu provinces, as well as in neighbouring Uganda, where there have been seven confirmed cases.<\/p>\n
Elaborating on what his province needs, Kashama explained \u201cqualified personnel\u201d should be deployed as soon as possible and \u201csecure treatment centres\u201d established.<\/p>\n
Angry relatives trying to claim the bodies of loved ones who had reportedly died of Ebola have targeted two treatment centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur existing resources were dedicated to the war, and this second war that is now upon us demands even more,\u201d he said on RFI.<\/p>\n
Ituri has been under military rule since 2021, when the civilian authority was replaced by a military general in an attempt to neutralise dozens of armed groups which have operated in the area for many years. These include the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), affiliated to the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd lastly, we need to mobilise financial resources \u2013 they must be made available,\u201d the governor said. \u201cThe more time we lose, the closer we come to disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), met with health ministers from DR Congo and Uganda and South Sudan to finalise their cross-border co-ordination in response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n
Africa CDC director-general Dr Jean Kaseya said they also agreed on a $319m (\u00a3236m) budget to stop the outbreak from spreading.<\/p>\n
He told BBC World Service\u2019s Newsday on Monday, that 10% of the money had been secured from the affected countries.<\/p>\n
On the same day, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged an initial $5m to support the plan.<\/p>\n
Kaseya added that African businessmen will be meeting later this week to \u201craise additional funds\u201d, while international partners were also \u201ccommitting funds\u201d.<\/p>\n
Africa CDC has warned that other countries on the continent \u2013 namely Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia \u2013 were at risk from an outbreak.<\/p>\n
This outbreak is the 17th to have emerged in DR Congo since Ebola was discovered in 1976.<\/p>\n
It is only the third worldwide of the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has not been seen in over a decade.<\/p>\n
There are currently no vaccines or medications that target Bundibugyo, but vaccines are currently in development.<\/p>\n
Last week, the WHO said it could take up to nine months for a vaccine to be ready.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The military governor of the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Ituri province, the epicentre of the current Ebola outbreak, has likened the struggle to contain the spread of the virus to a \u201cwar\u201d for which they are lacking resources to fight. \u201cPeople in affected areas are not receiving enough food,\u201d Johnny Luboya Nkashama told French broadcaster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}