WHO's Tedros says Ebola response must be scaled up to tackle Congo outbreak

The head ​of the World Health Organization ‌on Wednesday ​said the Ebola response needs to be scaled up in order to tackle the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of ‌Congo, with tracking the chains of transmission still posing a challenge.

"Until every chain is found and broken, the epidemic will continue and will continue to pose a threat to DRC, its neighbors ‌and the region as a whole," the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters ‌in Geneva. The number of deaths in Congo's Ebola outbreak has surpassed 3,000, government data showed on Wednesday, as the country's worst-ever epidemic continues to spread across its northeast.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of ⁠Ebola, became the ​largest and deadliest ⁠in Congo's history after surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic. It is now second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, ⁠which infected over 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ghebreyesus said ​many deaths are among people who are not on a list of known ⁠contacts. "That means there are chains of transmission we don't know about," he said, adding that many of those ⁠who ​died were still being buried unsafely, which is fueling transmission.

He urged the international community to increase and accelerate funding for the Congolese government-led Ebola response plan, which is ⁠seeking $1.3 billion. "We know that we are making this request at a time when financing for humanitarian ⁠assistance has contracted, ⁠and when there are many other competing priorities. But as we know from previous Ebola outbreaks, we can control this epidemic if ‌we choose to," ‌he stated.