The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation have called for an urgent expansion of community-led efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warning that the virus is spreading faster than the current response.
The appeal followed a joint high-level mission to Uganda and the DRC on August 4 and 5, led by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya and WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr. Mohamed Janabi.
The delegation visited Kampala, Bunia and Kinshasa, where they met government officials, frontline health workers, community representatives and response partners to assess progress and identify operational gaps in the fight against the disease.
Africa CDC and WHO praised Uganda for successfully ending its Ebola outbreak on July 28 after recording 20 confirmed cases and two deaths.
Officials said Uganda’s experience demonstrated that early detection, rapid contact tracing, effective community engagement and strong cross-border surveillance remain critical to containing outbreaks.
