The Ebola virus outbreak in Africa will worsen further before the situation begins to come under control, as the spread outpaces containment efforts, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday.
“We are facing an extremely serious and difficult outbreak. Things will get worse before they get better,” Dr. Tedros told health ministers from African countries during a meeting held by videoconference.
Every possible effort is being made to deliver equipment and supplies to the affected region and to implement measures to contain the outbreak, he continued. These include efforts to secure the trust of the population and to isolate contacts of possible cases, he explained.
“We are urgently stepping up operations, but so far the outbreak is moving faster than we are,” he said.
The WHO chief said he plans to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo today.
According to the latest figures from the Health Ministry of the vast Central African country, more than 900 suspected Ebola cases have been recorded and more than 200 patients have died. Of those, 100 cases have been confirmed by laboratory tests, as have 10 of the deaths, according to the same source.
