Ebola was confirmed almost twice in the days when the WHO chief visited DR Congo | News about Ebola

The head of the United Nations health organization is visiting The deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), prompting local people to take the lead in fighting the disease whose cases have been confirmed almost twice in two days.

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on Saturday in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

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“International organizations are participating under the leadership of the government of the DRC, and at the same time, having the community is important; that’s why we are here to talk with the community to see how the solution is, you know, to run, and if there are problems, to support,” Tedros told reporters.

“Communities understand these problems well, and they also know the solution.”

Congolese officials say the number of confirmed cases in the DRC reached 225 on Friday, almost double the number of 121 reported two days earlier.

The epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare and dangerous species Ebola who do not have an approved vaccine or medication.

The WHO has declared the outbreak a global emergency, its highest level of alarm, and the medical NGO Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, is calling it the most widespread Ebola outbreak ever.

Officials have also recorded 1,028 suspected cases of over 220 deaths in the DRC, while the disease has crossed into neighboring Uganda, which has recorded nine confirmed cases and one death.

Ebola was first identified in this central African region in 1976; This is the 17th outbreak in the DRC.

The bundibug is one of the three types of viruses behind major epidemics; The most dangerous, the Ebola virus in Zaire, 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, the largest in history, with more than 28,000 cases.

“No one knows the scale and severity of the epidemic,” MSF said, warning that the response had not been successful.

The WHO has warned that the death rate could reach 30 to 50 percent – the number seen in the previous two Bundibugyo outbreaks – although the number of confirmed cases has decreased.

Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from the eastern Congo city of Goma on Saturday, said the DRC’s health ministry had stepped up testing, screening and monitoring, revealing diseases that might otherwise go undocumented.

Help is coming

As the virus spreads rapidly, the European Union has sent medical aid to Ituri, and the United States has pledged more than $112m.

Despite this, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the health organization of the African Union, said that the international funding to fight the disease has dropped by half, from $498m to $219m.

The outbreak showed its first recovery this week, and the WHO is working with the DRC and Uganda to test experimental drugs and a potential vaccine.

Tedros, who met with DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka in Kinshasa before leaving for Bunia, said he was confident that the country, which has repeatedly battled Ebola, could regain control.

However, living with the disease has become more difficult due to years of conflict in eastern DRC. Health groups in Ituri are under attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group linked to ISIL (ISIS), and local insurgents. The virus has also reached North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, where the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group controls major cities.

Anger over strict mortuary laws, which conflict with local burial customs, has fueled three attacks on hospitals.

Countries in the region are on alert. Both Uganda and Rwanda have closed their borders with the DRC, while Washington has banned most travelers from the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan.

The WHO advises against this, and Tedros has dismissed border closures as unnecessary, saying they prevent countries from reporting the spread of the virus.

Health ministers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has eight countries in East Africa, met this week and agreed to send $7m across the region.

US plan to open Ebola shelter in Kenya publicly The Americans were suspended by a Kenyan court this week after the rights group, the Katiba Institute, challenged the move.

In a statement that did not mention the court’s decision, the country’s health minister, Aden Duale, said the project would continue. It is not clear where the situation is.

The Africa CDC has also objected, warning that the facility will undermine Kenya’s health system. The US says it hopes to end the conflict.