The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday he was "deeply concerned" by an Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has spilled into Uganda, believed to have killed 131 people. "Early on Sunday, I declared a public health emergency of international concern over an epidemic of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly in Geneva. "I did not do this lightly... I'm deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic," he said. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared the outbreak a Continental Public Health Emergency, in a statement late Monday. The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases of Ebola, and there has been one death in neighboring Uganda. Declaring a continental emergency empowers the Africa CDC, based in Ethiopia, to mobilize extra resources including emergency response teams and surveillance operations. "Africa CDC expresses deep concern about the high risk of regional spread due to intense cross-border population movements, mobility related to mining activities, insecurity in affected areas, weak infection prevention and control measures... and the proximity of affected areas to Rwanda and South Sudan," it said. The agency said it was working closely with the WHO to strengthen coordination, as developed in response to recent mpox and cholera outbreaks. "This outbreak is occurring in one of the continent's most complex operational environments, marked by insecurity, population mobility, fragile health systems, and the limited availability of medical countermeasures for Bundibugyo strain Ebola virus disease," said Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya.
