WHO chief updates journalists on Ebola outbreak, COVID-19 treatment study

Nearly 50 staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners arrived in Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) location of the country’s latest Ebola outbreak.

The responders carried 3,500 doses of Ebola vaccine and 2,000 cartridges for lab testing, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists covering his regular virtual update on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is an important reminder that even as WHO focuses on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies,” he said.

The Ebola outbreak in Mbandaka, located in Equateur province in northwest DRC – on the opposite side of the country to the worst epidemic in the country’s history that is petering out – was confirmed earlier this week.

So far, eight cases have been detected, four of whom have died.

“The latest person confirmed with Ebola attended the burial of one of the first cases, but was detected in the town of Bikoro, 150 kilometres away from Mbandaka. This means that two health zones are now affected,” said Tedros.

Mbandaka had suffered a previous Ebola outbreak in May 2018, which was halted in three months.

Meanwhile, the DRC is still fighting an Ebola outbreak in the east that emerged in August 2018, and now appears to be in its final stages.

COVID-19: Americas a concern

As of June 3, the global COVID-19 caseload had reached nearly 6.3 million, with nearly 380,000 deaths.

Tedros said more than 100,000 cases of the disease have been reported to WHO for each of the past five days.

The Americas continue to account for most cases worldwide. For several weeks now, the region has had more cases than all other countries combined.

“We are especially worried about Central and South America, where many countries are witnessing accelerating epidemics”, said the WHO chief.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to be on the decline in Europe. June 2 saw the fewest cases reported in the region in more than two months.

Original source: UN News
Published on 03 June 2020