As of May 30, two-hundred-and-sixty-three confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya said.
More than 1,100 suspected cases are being investigated and 43 people are confirmed to have died as a result of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, Kaseya said in a Financial Times op-ed published on Sunday.
Kaseya said national incident systems must be activated rapidly, and investments in pandemic preparedness must become permanent.
He added that International partners play an essential role, but their support matters most when it aligns with strategies that are built by African institutions and African governments.
Outpacing global response
The Ebola outbreak – the 17th in Democratic Republic of Congo and the third-largest since Ebola was discovered half a century ago – is outpacing the global response.
Health officials and aid workers say they lack basic supplies such as masks after the outbreak spread was undetected for weeks in DRC
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern.
