{"id":221749,"date":"2025-09-12T20:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221749\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:23:10","slug":"limited-access-and-funding-hinders-ebola-response-in-southern-congo-who-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221749\/","title":{"rendered":"Limited access and funding hinders Ebola response in southern Congo, WHO says"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) \u2014 Limited access and required funding are the key challenges facing health officials trying to respond to the latest Ebola outbreak<\/a> in southern Congo, the World Health Organization<\/a> said on Friday. <\/p>\n

It is the first Ebola outbreak in 18 years in Kasai province, a remote part of Congo with poor road networks, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the nation\u2019s capital of Kinshasa.<\/p>\n

A United Nations peacekeeping helicopter was used to help deliver 400 vaccine doses to the epicenter, in the locality of Bulape, on Friday, Patrick Otim, WHO\u2019s program area manager, said at a briefing in Geneva. <\/p>\n

An additional 1,500 doses will be sent from the capital of Kinshasa, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have struggled in the last seven days with access but are collaborating with MONUSCO (U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo) now,\u201d Otim said. <\/p>\n

While the WHO and Congolese authorities have \u201cramped up efforts to have a full scale response\u201d on the ground, \u201cwe need to be able to pay for the operations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Since the outbreak was confirmed on Sept. 4, the number of suspected cases has increased from 28 to 68<\/a>, Africa\u2019s top health agency said on Thursday. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC, has so far reported 16 deaths.<\/p>\n

Otim said the most recent confirmed case was located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the current epicenter. \u201cOur worry is if we get cases in the other health zone, we need to expand and it will be resource-intensive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

WHO\u2019s projected cost for the current outbreak over the next three months is $20 million while Congo\u2019s national response plan is estimated at $78 million, said Otim.<\/p>\n

A major concern has been the impact of recent U.S. funding cuts<\/a>. The U.S. had supported the response to Congo\u2019s past Ebola outbreaks, including in 2021 when the U.S. Agency for International Development provided up to $11.5 million to support efforts across Africa.<\/p>\n

Health workers at risk, to be prioritized in vaccination<\/p>\n

At least four health workers are among the confirmed cases, according to Mathias Mossoko, Congo\u2019s Ebola response coordinator in Bulape. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, our priority is to vaccinate health care workers. Given the number of cases and deaths among health care providers, protecting these front line workers is essential to ensure the population receives adequate care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At least 94% of the suspected cases\u2019 contacts \u2014 more than 600 people \u2014 have been traced with only one so far confirmed to be infected, Mossoko said, adding that there\u2019s minimal risk of the disease spreading to other provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, it is not yet appropriate to declare a public health emergency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014-<\/p>\n

Asadu reported from Dakar, Senegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINSHASA, Congo (AP) \u2014 Limited access and required funding are the key challenges facing health officials trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":221750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7779,63643,18596,46861,94169,57,210,15006,6604,113507,120564,1060,120563,881,1206,67,132,68,26413,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-221749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","10":"tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","11":"tag-disease-outbreaks","12":"tag-ebola-virus","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-immunizations","16":"tag-international-news","17":"tag-kinshasa","18":"tag-mathias-mossoko","19":"tag-medication","20":"tag-patrick-otim","21":"tag-public-health","22":"tag-united-nations","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-world-health-organization","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115193198095892380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}