WHO raises Ebola public health risk to ‘very high’ in DR Congo

The World Health Organization (WHO) has upgraded the public health risk of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from high to “very high” as the deadly outbreak continues to spread.

WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced on Friday that they were revising their risk assessment for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, to “very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level.”

Tedros also said on X that the situation in the DRC was “deeply worrisome”.

“So far, 82 cases have been confirmed, with seven confirmed deaths. But we know the epidemic in the DRC is much larger. There are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths,” he wrote.

He added that additional WHO personnel had been deployed to the epicentre of the DRC’s outbreak in Ituri province, to support affected communities.

The new strain of the virus currently has no approved vaccine or treatment, and the WHO declared it an emergency of international concern on Sunday.

Ebola is an often-fatal virus that causes fever, body aches, vomiting and diarrhoea. It spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday that volunteers are going door-to-door in the area at the centre of ⁠the outbreak, to combat misinformation about Ebola and explain how people can protect themselves and seek care.

“Community reactions remain mixed. For some people the outbreak is very real and they are taking information on ‌how to protect themselves,” Gabriela Arenas, the Regional Operations Coordinator for the IFRC Africa Region, told reporters via video link from Nairobi. “For others, there’s still suspicion and misinformation claiming that Ebola is fabricated.”

Public health measures

Reporting from the eastern Congolese city of Goma, in neighbouring North Kivu province, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani said authorities are taking “serious measures” against the outbreak as the situation escalates.

In an official order on Friday, Ituri’s provincial government restricted funerals, saying burials must now be conducted only by specialised teams and prohibited the transport of dead bodies by non-medical vehicles.

It also limited public gatherings to a maximum of 50 people and suspended the local football league.

This came a day after residents in Ituri province’s Rwampara town torched an Ebola treatment centre and clashed with police ⁠while trying to recover the body of a victim on Thursday.

“The way things are going in Ituri, they are fearing that more cases are spreading because the majority of the cases reported across the region are still coming from Ituri,” Uaykani said.