Today's News

The World Health Organization on August 1 announced that the present Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has expanded to the largest-ever scale.

The organization said that the situation was initially confined to Ituri Province, but it has expanded to 49 public health districts in several regions, including North and South Kivu provinces, for the past two months.

The number of victims has increased even among medical workers, with infected cases numbering 151 and deaths 44 so far, which indicates that there are still serious shortcomings in the prevention and control of infection at medical facilities, it stressed.

It warned that the instability of the region, movement of personnel, cross-border movement and other factors are hindering monitoring and counteraction, thereby heightening the risk of additional spread, and that the attacks on health facilities are increasing the danger of preventing people from properly grasping the situation of the spread of the epidemic.

Evaluating the risk in the country as "very high", the WHO called for intensifying monitoring, test, clinical treatment, infection control, community engagement and materials supply to prevent the spread.