Good afternoon to everyone in the room, and good morning, good afternoon and good evening to those joining us online
Yesterday I returned from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including to the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri
I met with political leaders, senior health officials, Ambassadors, partners, WHO colleagues, frontline responders, community and faith leaders, women’s groups, business leaders, traditional healers and more
I’m very encouraged by the level of commitment I saw everywhere I went. What I saw gave me hope, although challenges remain
In DRC, 344 cases have been confirmed, including 60 deaths, in 24 health zones across three different provinces: Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu
The number of suspected cases has now been reduced to 116 from over 1000 last week, as we work through the backlog, either confirming them or ruling them out
In Uganda, there is one confirmed death and 15 confirmed cases, including a Congolese resident who travelled to the United Arab Emirates, and then to Uganda
WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing
We thank both the UAE and Uganda for their collaboration to mitigate the risks related to this case
In addition, a U.S. citizen who was infected in DRC is still receiving care in Germany
WHO’s risk assessment remains unchanged: very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level
The outbreak had a big head start, and we’re still behind, but under the leadership of the Government of DRC, we are catching up
In Bunia there are now three treatment centres with a capacity of 80 beds, and there are also treatment units in Mongbwalu, Rwampara, Beni, Goma and Bukavu, and more are on the way
So far, six people have recovered in DRC and two in Uganda, showing that people can survive Ebola if they have access to care and go to health facilities as soon as they show symptoms
But we still face several challenges
First, testing
One of our key priorities is to scale up laboratory and diagnostic capacity, to reduce delays in case confirmation and support faster response decisions
Accordingly, we are working to decentralize laboratory and diagnostic capacity in priority locations, including Mongbwalu, Beni, Aru, Nyakunde, and Tchomia
We also need to scale up readiness, including surveillance, laboratory diagnostics and access to health services in neighbouring provinces and countries
Second, contact tracing in the DRC is not yet where it needs to be
Only about 45% of contacts have been followed up, and to get ahead of the outbreak we need to get that number up to above 90%
Insecurity, displacement and mobile populations make contact tracing especially difficult
Third, blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response
WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings to prevent the exportation of cases and contacts
We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them
Fourth, community mistrust is a serious barrier. Some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real
Building trust with the communities is therefore critical to bringing the outbreak under control
And fifth, as you know, we are fighting this outbreak without vaccines or therapeutics
WHO and partners are working on advancing clinical trials as quickly as possible
Today, I convened for the second time the principals of the interim Medical Countermeasures Network to align on three priorities:
First, increasing support for decentralized diagnostics;
Second, mobilizing immediate support for the affected countries to lead clinical trials, in cooperation with communities;
And third, accelerating the investments to support all pillars of the response
Although vaccines and therapeutics would be a big help, the key to ending this outbreak is not biomedical
It’s leadership, ownership, partnership and trust:
Government leadership;
Community ownership;
Strong partnership between the many actors involved, working with one budget, one plan and one report;
And building trust in the affected communities
We also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face
One of the things I heard from the community leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take ren for their many other needs
Our ultimate measure of success is not whether we stop this outbreak
We will. The Government of DRC has extensive experience with Ebola, and has stopped 16 previous outbreaks
It’s just a matter of how quickly we can do it
The real measure of success is what we do to prevent the 18th outbreak, and the 19th
If the people of Ituri survive Ebola only to die from malaria or malnutrition, or pneumonia or diarrheal disease or HIV or diabetes, we have not really helped them
For now, WHO and our partners are committed to ending this outbreak, under the leadership of the government
And when it does end, we will remain equally committed to supporting the government and the local communities to build the health and humanitarian services they need and deserve
Amna, back to you
