WHO chief says Ebola outbreak in Congo is 'spreading rapidly' and upgrades risk assessment

GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is "spreading rapidly" and now poses a "very high" risk at the national level.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was revising upward to "very high" its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high. The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.

The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, "but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger."


He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths. The situation in neighboring Uganda is "stable" with two cases confirmed in people who had traveled from Congo, with one death.

Earlier on Friday, the United Nations said it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region. The U.S. has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions of Congo and Uganda.

Ugandan authorities said they were not aware of any treatment centers being set up by the U.S.