Challenges Mount For Ebola Control In Conflict-Hit DRC Region

Devex: Tedros: Ebola outbreak highlights weakness for panic-based response
“As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo threatens to spiral out of control — amid intense fighting near the country’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda — the global health community is reminded of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa: Has the international community learned its lesson? And is it responding differently to the present crisis? … WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [spoke with] Devex, at the sidelines of the 69th regional meeting of its Western Pacific office in Manila…” (Ravelo, 10/12).

The Lancet: Fighting Ebola in conflict in the DR Congo
“…The emergence of Ebola virus disease exacerbates an already dire humanitarian situation in this restive part of the [Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)]. North Kivu is a region that has long experienced conflict, and when the new outbreak was declared on Aug. 1, vast swathes of the countryside were already no-go zones for international and national health workers…” (Moran, 10/13).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Spike in Ebola cases pushes Congo outbreak to ‘tipping point’: aid workers
“Aid agencies said on Thursday that the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo could be tipping into a wider crisis as the number of new cases spiked and violence grounded health workers for a second time…” (Peyton, 10/11).

Additional coverage of the DRC Ebola outbreak and response is available from Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CIDRAP News, Reuters, and Vox.

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