Ebola outbreak in DR Congo ‘extremely serious, difficult to manage,’ says WHO chief

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is “extremely serious and difficult” to manage, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday, warning that the epidemic is currently spreading faster than response operations.

“We are urgently scaling up operations but, for the moment, the outbreak is progressing faster than we are,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He said 101 confirmed cases and 10 confirmed deaths have been recorded so far in Congo, but warned the real scale of the outbreak is significantly larger.

“There are now more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths,” he said.

Earlier, health authorities warned that the outbreak is continuing to spread in parts of Africa, with neighboring countries also affected.

Ten countries, including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Zambia, face the risk of an Ebola outbreak, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The WHO has also warned that while the risk of global spread remains low, the situation is being closely monitored due to the number of cases, infections among healthcare workers, and outbreaks in urban areas.