The Ebola outbreak in Congo is continuing to intensify, with one person dying every 30 minutes, prompting the United Nations to announce an additional $35 million from its emergency relief fund to help contain the virus.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, while announcing the new resources, warned that the outbreak was outpacing efforts to stop it. He said the spread of the disease was increasing and measures to control it needed to be strengthened and made more effective.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has deployed 20 additional staff to support efforts to stop the spread of the virus in Ituri, the province worst affected by the outbreak. Fletcher said more personnel may be required for the response.
So far, 2,184 people have died in the outbreak, representing about 47 per cent of all confirmed cases of the virus.
UN spokesperson Daniela Gross said the World Food Programme would begin delivering ready-to-eat meals from the next day to more centres treating Ebola patients in Ituri and other provinces.
North Kivu and South Kivu provinces have also been affected by Ebola. These areas have long been hit by fighting between the Congolese army and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia. Ituri remains the centre of the outbreak, with 3,400 of more than 4,660 reported cases recorded in the province.
Nearly 2.6 million people in eastern Congo are facing severe food insecurity, more than half of them in Ituri.
After a meeting of the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Friday, Fletcher said major global aid organisations had agreed to scale up the international response to Ebola.
Gross said the needs of civilians in Congo were far greater than the current efforts to tackle Ebola, and that more assistance was urgently required.
Fletcher identified four key steps needed to protect lives in the region. He said the number of teams ensuring safe and dignified burials for those who die of Ebola must be doubled, treatment capacity must be tripled, the system for tracing people who have come into contact with infected individuals must be improved, and more experienced managers and experts must be deployed for the response.
He also called for continued provision of clean water, sanitation facilities and medical assistance to people in areas affected by the virus, saying the world must wake up and ensure concrete measures to bring the outbreak under control.
