WHO Says Congo Ebola Outbreak Can Still Be Stopped in Three Months

A senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, August 18, that it is still possible to stop an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo within three months. The outbreak has become the second deadliest in history, killing at least 2,325 people so far. Health workers are struggling to contain the virus as it keeps spreading to new areas of the country.

The WHO first said in early August that stopping Ebola's spread within three months was possible. But since then, the situation has gotten worse. The virus has now reached a sixth province in Congo, making the effort even harder.

Thierno Balde, the WHO's incident manager for the outbreak, spoke to reporters from Bunia, a city in Congo. He said that with the right resources, the three-month plan could still work. 'The situation is quite difficult, but people are working here day and night trying to control this outbreak,' he said.

One major problem is money. The WHO needs about $115 million to fight this outbreak, but so far it has only raised about 60 percent of that amount. Without enough funding, health teams cannot hire enough workers, buy enough supplies, or reach enough people in time.

There are other challenges, too. Health teams are not finding new cases fast enough, which is called delayed detection. Armed conflict in some areas makes it dangerous for workers to do their jobs. There are also not enough vaccines or treatments for the rare type of Ebola virus causing this outbreak, known as the Bundibugyo species.

Still, there is some progress. In the past two weeks, 400 new hospital beds have been added to treat patients. More disease experts, called epidemiologists, will also be sent to track people who have been near sick patients. These contact tracers help slow the spread by finding people who may have caught the virus before they get very sick.

However, other health leaders are less hopeful. Between 70 and 80 percent of new Ebola cases have no known link to other patients. This means the virus is spreading in places that health teams have not yet found. Dr. Wessam Mankoula, a top official at Africa CDC, said the full size of the outbreak is still unknown.

On Tuesday, the WHO's Emergency Committee met to talk about the outbreak. The group was deciding whether to keep calling this a 'public health emergency of international concern,' a special label the WHO gave the outbreak on May 17. That label helps push governments around the world to work together to stop the disease from spreading further.