UN officials call for strong health system following second case of Ebola in Goma

The reports of the second case of Ebola come a day after the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said that it needs to trip its budget to tackle the complex crisis, which is complicated by ongoing conflict, and an outbreak of measles.

Senior UN officials tasked with controlling the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have responded to Tuesday's confirmation of the second case of Ebola in Goma, a major trading town in the vast country's restive east, near the border with neighboring Rwanda, which resulted in the death of the patient.

On Wednesday, David Gressley, the UN Ebola Emergency Response Coordinator, and Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response at the World Health Organization (WHO), released a joint statement announcing that they are "working intensively" to halt any further spread.

Surveillance is being stepped up at all entry and exit points in the area, but more needs to be done to eradicate Ebola, the officials said, calling for a "strong, resilient health system" to avoid a resurgence of the disease in DRC.

The senior officials stated that there is no evidence that the second case in Goma is linked to the first confirmed case. The first concerned a pastor who traveled to Goma from Butembo in North Kivu. The second is a miner who had been working in Ituri. The disease is centered in both provinces.

The reports of the second case of Ebola come a day after the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said that it needs to trip its budget to tackle the complex crisis, which is complicated by ongoing conflict, and an outbreak of measles.

On Friday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that, over the next six months, it is planning to scale up and double food assistance to people affected by the disease, in preparation for a potential further escalation of the epidemic.

The WFP support is for 440,000 "Ebola-affected" people in DRC, which includes contacts of victims and their families, as well as confirmed and suspected cases.