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Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is complicating efforts to rein in a deadly Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief warned yesterday, while Uganda announced it was shutting its border.
The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, out of more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. Its chief fears insecurity in the eastern DRC, which has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving a litany of armed groups, is making it extremely difficult to contain the outbreak.
“Eastern DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response,” the UN agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. Neighbouring Uganda, which has recorded seven cases of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the outbreak, announced it was shutting its border with the DRC with immediate effect.
It also said it was imposing a 21-day quarantine on anyone arriving from the DRC, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and district surveillance teams. No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind the DRC’s 17th recorded outbreak of the disease.
The WHO said the case fatality rate was under 25 percent — much lower than in other recent outbreaks. But it has also said the true spread of the virus was probably much wider than confirmed numbers suggest, with the strain likely circulating for some time before it was detected.
State services in rural areas of Ituri province have been largely absent for decades. Tedros lamented that clashes were “driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors”.
“Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,” he warned.
“We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” Tedros said, urging “all warring parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to contain this outbreak”.
The United States plans to open a quarantine centre in Kenya, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, primarily intended for Americans who need to leave the DRC quickly and quarantine.
