WHO hails DRC's new aid in the fight against Ebola



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Tedrus Ghebreyesus, chief executive of the World Health Organization, said several countries had renewed their pledges for financial aid after the outbreak of Ebola epidemic outbreak earlier this month.

"Especially in recent weeks, we renewed our commitment to finance the shortages we faced," Ghebreyesus told AFP at a summit in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

The support raised hopes that the epidemic can be contained, he said.

These comments came after the World Bank announced Wednesday that it would deploy an additional $ 300 million ($ 269 million) in addition to the $ 100 million already provided following the Ebola outbreak in August 2018. .

But officials said an additional $ 200 million may be needed in the next six months.

Security issues

"The DRC will need the support of the international community to strengthen its health system and rehabilitate it," Ghebreyesus said after an interview with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi , at the top.

He said the government was aware that the public health response would not be enough to permanently stop the Ebola virus.

The conflict in the eastern DRC, where the virus is concentrated, has made this epidemic "different and more complicated," he added.

"Favorable factors should also be taken into account and one of them is the issue of security," he said. "His Excellency the President understands this too."

More than 1,700 people died during the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The virus is highly contagious and has an average mortality rate of around 50%.

It is transmitted to humans by wild animals and spreads by close contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected person.

Stakeholders in the DRC hoped that this Ebola outbreak would be easier to control, thanks in part to a new vaccine, used for the first time since the discovery of the deadly virus in 1976.

Yet, while more than 160,000 people from the affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been vaccinated, confinement efforts have been compromised by unrest in the besieged country and lack of shelter. trusted health workers in the communities.

On Friday, the UN said the new coordinator of the DRC Ebola response plans to use a second controversial vaccine recommended by the WHO.

DRC Health Minister Oly Ilunga, who was responsible for the response to the Ebola virus, resigned this week, accusing the "strong pressure" he was facing to approve the new product.

He added that "the actors who have demonstrated a flagrant lack of ethics" advocated the second vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson Health Care Company;

WHO's emergency chief, Mike Ryan, rejected the claims, saying "no pressure has ever been exerted on the minister by the WHO."

Ghebreyesus said the DRC was the only decision maker to decide which vaccines to use.

"At the end of the day, regardless of the vaccine required to obtain government approval," he said.

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