The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, touched down in Kinshasa on Thursday evening with a message that can best be described as cautiously optimistic: the Ebola outbreak ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo can, in fact, be stopped. He plans to travel Friday to Ituri province, the epicenter of the epidemic, presumably to see the problem up close and personally assure the virus that it's not welcome.
“That thing can be stopped,” Tedros declared, adding that the WHO does not support travel bans as a response because they “don’t help much” - a position that will no doubt disappoint anyone hoping to outrun a hemorrhagic fever by hopping a plane. He also made a direct appeal to the armed groups fighting over the mineral-rich region, asking for a ceasefire on the grounds that no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease. It’s a novel argument: maybe the guns and machetes can take a break so the doctors can do their jobs.
Since the outbreak was declared on May 15, the WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths out of more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases - figures that, the agency warns, likely undercount the true spread because the virus has been quietly circulating under the radar for some time. This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, a country of over 100 million people that has seen the virus before, and the current strain - Bundibugyo - has no vaccine or treatment yet. The WHO’s advisory groups have recommended clinical trials for vaccines and treatments, and the African Union’s health agency chief, Jean Kaseya, says a vaccine should be ready by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
Neighboring Uganda, which has one recorded Ebola death and six additional cases, has shut its border with the DRC effective immediately. The US said it would deny entry to anyone infected and is working to open a treatment facility for affected US citizens in Kenya - a plan that has already drawn a legal challenge from a Kenyan rights group and warnings from health officials that it could burden Kenya’s stretched health system. Meanwhile, the WHO has received 4.6 tonnes of aid at the Bunia airport, and UNICEF is sending 100 tonnes. Because when it comes to stopping Ebola, every tonne counts.