Congolese president says skeptic that "Ebola is real"

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi yesterday implored people living in areas affected by the worst epidemic of Ebola ever faced by the country to accept the disease and trust health professionals.
Mistrust of first responders and the widespread misinformation conveyed by some community leaders has prompted many people in the affected areas of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to refuse vaccines.
Instead, they turn to traditional healers, whose clinics have contributed to the spread of haemorrhagic fever.
"This is not an imaginary disease," said Tshisekedi after arriving in the city of Beni during his first visit to eastern Congo since its inauguration in January.
"If we follow the instructions, Ebola will be over," he said hopefully to the crowd after he washed the temperature and washed his hands, as demand all the pbadengers arriving at Beni airport.
Congo has had 10 outbreaks of Ebola, which has caused severe vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding since the discovery of the virus in that country in 1976.
The current has recorded 1,264 confirmed and probable cases and 814 deaths since its declaration last August.
It is overtaken only by the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa, in which more than 28,000 cases were reported and more than 11,000 people died.
Following a series of attacks on treatment centers by unidentified badailants in February and March, the current outbreak is spreading at its fastest pace.
More than 100 cases were confirmed last week.
Tshisekedi, who won the elections last December to succeed Joseph Kabila, also yesterday called for the disarmament of dozens of militias operating in the east of the country whose presence has complicated the response to Ebola.
"The time of armed groups is over," he said. "The new government is reaching out to these children of the country to make weapons through disarmament programs."