WHO warns Ebola outbreak has caused 220 suspected deaths in DR Congo

The director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stated that there have been 220 suspected deaths in the current Ebola outbreak, warning that delays in detecting cases have left responders “playing catch-up”.

He said the WHO is urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing them, adding that countries bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the epicentre of the outbreak — should take immediate action, Caliber.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Earlier, Uganda reported two more Ebola cases, bringing its total number of confirmed infections to seven.

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola a public health emergency of international concern.

Tedros said he would travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 26, noting that the response is complicated by insecurity in the country’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces and the absence of approved vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov