WHO Steps Up Testing As Ebola Rapidly Spreads In Congo

The World ‌Health Organization said ‌on 28 May on X that, in partnership with the national medical research ‌organization of ⁠the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ⁠it is scaling up Ebola diagnostic capacities in the ‌country to help swiftly contain an outbreak.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said ‌the effort aims to strengthen the laboratory ‌network to deliver real-time data, rapidly identify confirmed cases and ‌save lives.

Meanwhile, doctors and public health workers at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC told ABC News that the deadly virus is still spreading at an alarming rate.

"The outbreak is completely out of control," said Dr. Richard Kojan in an interview from the city of Bunia in Ituri province, which is the hardest hit.

Kojan, who has been involved in fighting previous Ebola outbreaks in central and western Africa and is president of the Alliance for International Medical Action, said deep mistrust within some local communities is hampering efforts to contain the virus.

Another clinician, Dr. Richard Lokudi, who is the director of the main hospital in Mongbwalu, the hardest hit area, told ABC News that the disease was spreading "at an exponential speed."

Dr. Lokudi said seven symptomatic patients suspected of having Ebola had recently "escaped" from Mongbwalu Hospital.

This was creating "chains and chains of contamination," Dr. Lokudi said, adding that this was making the virus "difficult to fight."

According to the WHO, more than 1,000 suspected cases of a rare strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo, have been identified in the eastern DRC and more than 230 suspected deaths from the virus have been recorded.