WHO chief hails five Ebola recoveries as new treatment centre opens
Five patients have recovered from a rare type of Ebola, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Sunday during a visit to a city at the heart of an outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the opening of a new Ebola treatment centre in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri.
“Of course, we’re still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn’t mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,” he added.
The WHO said on Friday a patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo virus, the current kind of Ebola, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. It was the first documented recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo patient during the current outbreak.
The health organisation said latest official figures showed 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Neighbouring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, the Ugandan Health Ministry said on Friday.
The virus continues to spread faster than the response despite better-organised health facilities and new aid arrivals, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said on Saturday, calling for the immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.
The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centres.
Dr Tedros stressed the importance of involving the community in the outbreak response during the opening of the treatment centre on Sunday.
“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.
“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover. But the rule … is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be involved,” he added.
Attacks in Ituri by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the so-called Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.
The illness also has been reported in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.
“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, incident manager at DR Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during the inauguration on Sunday.
“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Mr Akilimali added.
“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment centre.
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