- Title: Ebola slows in Congo but entrenched in insecure areas - WHO
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS LISTENING NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME, DOCTOR MICHAEL RYAN, SAYING: "Containing a virus is a different prospect to eliminating that virus from human populations. At this point we have to ensure that we push the virus completely out of the human population and we need to do that as quickly as we can while being very careful to continue to keep the community on board and to protect our staff and ensure our staff have the proper enabling environment in which to do their work safely."
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 14:05
- Keywords: Ebola Congo treatment security transmission outbreak virus
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ BENI AND GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO,
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ BENI AND GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO,
- Country: France
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA004B0IMPFR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Ebola epidemic in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo has been confined to a smaller area, but one that is remote, rife with militias and people on the move, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday (October 10).
The number of new confirmed cases in the year-old outbreak has been dropping steadily, to 14 infections last week from 51 in mid-September and nearly 130 at its peak in April, it said.
More than 3,200 people are known to have been infected with the deadly virus, of whom 2,144 have died.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies programme, told a news conference in Geneva said that the virus is essentially contained in a triangle stretching from Mambasa, Komanda, Oicha and Mandima, where it is transmitting at a low level.
"But containing a virus is a different prospect to eliminating that virus from human populations," he said, adding that tracing of people exposed to the deadly virus, safe burials, and more people agreeing to be vaccinated - 236,000 to date - have helped.
Ryan also said that mining operations, legal and illegal, abound in the zone, where people go back and forth to their villages.
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