ABUJA, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) –The World Health Organization (WHO) said a shortage in funding to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo was finally being filled.
Tedrus Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general , said that several countries had renewed pledges of financial aid after the Ebola outbreak was declared an international emergency earlier this month.
“Especially in the last couple of weeks there is renewed commitment to
finance the shortages we were facing,” Ghebreyesus told a summit in
Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
The support raised hopes the epidemic could be restrained, he said.
The comments came after the World Bank announced Wednesday it would deploy a further $300 million in addition to $100 million already provided after Ebola erupted in August 2018.
But officials said another $200 million could be needed in the coming six
months.
“The DRC will need the international community’s support to strengthen its
health system and to rehabilitate it,” Ghebreyesus said after holding talks
with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi at the summit.
He said the government was aware the public health response would not be
enough to permanently halt Ebola.
Conflict in eastern DRC, where the virus has been concentrated, had made
this outbreak “different and more complicated”, he added.
“Enabling factors should also be taken into account and one of them is the
security issue,” he said. “His excellency the president also understands
that.” More than 1,700 have died in the latest Ebola epidemic to hit DRC.
On Friday, the UN said that the DRC’s new Ebola response coordinator was
considering the use of a controversial second vaccine recommended by the WHO.
The DRC health minister Oly Ilunga, who had been in charge of the Ebola
response, quit this week blaming the “strong pressure” he faced to approve
the new product.
WHO’s emergency chief Mike Ryan rejected the claims, saying “no pressure
was ever applied to the minister by WHO.”
Ghebreyesus said the DRC were the sole decision-makers in deciding which
vaccines would be used.
“At the end of the day whatever vaccine should get clearance from the
government,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
