Internal conflict is hampering efforts to rein in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, urging a ceasefire to stop the virus from spreading.
The death toll from the latest outbreak rose to 41 people by August 1 in DRC’s North Kivu province. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, has called for the rapid roll-out of an unlicensed drug being used for the first time to treat Ebola patients.
Ghebreyesus told reporters on Tuesday he feared conditions on the ground in the eastern province had created “a conducive environment for the transmission of Ebola.”
The outbreak in North Kivu’s Beni region, which shares borders with Uganda and Rwanda, was declared a week after WHO and the Kinshasa government hailed the end of an Ebola flare-up in northwestern Equateur province, which killed 33 people.