The worst fears of World Health Organization (W.H.O.) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have been realized. The career Ethiopian bureaucrat confirmed late Monday the Ebola outbreak is outpacing response efforts in Africa and countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at high risk from the disease. “We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us,” Tedros declared as he urged neighbouring countries to take immediate action.
Addressing an online meeting of the African Union about the outbreak, the Guardian reports he also announced there had been 220 suspected deaths so far in the current Ebola outbreak and he would travel to the DRC on Tuesday with Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of W.H.O.’s health emergencies programme. Tedros’s announcement came as attacks by residents on health facilities in Ituri province, the centre of the outbreak, hampered the response.
