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According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is now concentrated in two regions and could be halted by September, but the country needs help to cope with its health problems. more general health.
The epidemic, the second-worst in history, reportedly killed 587 people in an area plagued by violence and poverty. A rapid international response has so far prevented the disease from spreading to neighboring countries.
"We have avoided a much more serious epidemic," said WHO President Tedros Ghebreyesus Adhanom at a press conference.
"Our goal now is to finish it in the next six months."
Since January, the number of new cases has been reduced by half, to 25 per week. The virus was now concentrated in Butembo and Katwa. However, community mistrust and attacks by armed groups hindered the response.
On Thursday, a group of young men attacked an Ebola center for the fifth time since last month, the Congolese Ministry of Health said after some doctors tried to take samples from the body of a man suspected of having died. Be dead from the virus.
Police opened fire to disperse the crowd in the health zone of Biena, west of Butembo, killing one person and wounding another, the ministry said in a statement.
Last week, the head of the MSF medical charity, which had two attacked facilities, said that the battle against Ebola was being lost as ordinary citizens did not trust health workers and that the answer was too militarized.
Tedros said that the local population was desperate and that she was rightly wondering why the world was so solicited by Ebola while he cared so little about other problems, especially cholera and cholera. malaria.
"I would like to call on the international community to badociate the fight against epidemics with the development of the health system," he said.
"It is a big challenge, otherwise we will have the air to prevent Ebola from spreading in other countries and we do not care about the demands of the community."
He added that the WHO would not leave after the end of the epidemic, but would help the government to strengthen health services.
He called on international donors to fund the US $ 148 million plan to fight Ebola in the next six months, a small expense compared to the potential cost.
The worst epidemic, which claimed the lives of 11,300 people in West Africa in 2013-2016, cost about 53 billion US dollars, according to a study.
Australian Associated Press
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