The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help tackle the Ebola outbreak there.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on social media that the region was in the midst of a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response”.

Tedros said on Monday that he would travel to the DRC this week. As of Sunday, there had been 900 suspected cases and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC, and seven confirmed cases and one death in Uganda, WHO data shows.

The outbreak was confirmed on 15 May in Ituri, the DRC’s most north-eastern province. Eastern DRC has a number of armed groups. Almost 1 million people in the province have been displaced by conflict, according to the UN humanitarian office.

The outbreak has spread south to rebel-held areas of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. Tedros said: “Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access. Yet ongoing clashes are driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors.”

The response has been complicated by the transient nature of many communities in Ituri, where goldmines attract migrant workers, as well as by international aid cuts. Philippe Guiton, the DRC director of World Vision, said: “For children, the risks are especially acute. Years of conflict have weakened community systems.”

The response has also been hindered by attacks on health facilities by people wanting authorities to release Ebola victims’ bodies for burial. On Saturday and Sunday, people attacked a hospital in Mongbwalu, and 18 Ebola patients fled the facility.

Source: www.theguardian.com