Addis Ababa, July 11 (IANS) Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya and World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus are set to visit the epicentre of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) next week, as part of a joint mission aimed at accelerating outbreak response.

This came after a meeting between heads of the two organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, where discussions focused on the continued Bundibugyo Ebola virus outbreak in the DRC and Uganda, as well as the “urgent action required on the ground,” Kaseya said Saturday in a statement issued on X.

“We agreed to travel together to Bunia (the capital of eastern DRC’s Ituri Province and the epicentre of the outbreak) on July 18 and 19 to meet national authorities, frontline health workers, affected communities, and response partners,” the Africa CDC chief said.

“This joint mission will help strengthen coordination, accelerate the response, and mobilise the support needed to stop transmission and protect lives,” he added.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Kaseya called for enhanced international solidarity in Africa’s fight against the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, emphasising that response efforts require faster diagnosis, more rigorous contact tracing, expanded treatment and isolation capacity, and increased supplies.

“Our priority is clear: find cases earlier, test faster, isolate safely, care for patients, protect health workers, and work closely with communities. In an Ebola outbreak, speed saves lives,” Kaseya said.

Meanwhile, Haut-Uele province in northeastern DRC has become the fourth province officially affected by the country’s current Ebola outbreak, after provincial authorities declared the epidemic across the province on Friday following the confirmation of seven fatal cases, Xinhua news agency reported.

The provincial governor’s communication office said in a statement that Governor Jean Bakomito Gambu officially declared the Ebola outbreak in Haut-Uele after the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) confirmed on Thursday seven fatal cases of Bundibugyo Ebola in the Wamba health zone.

–IANS

ksk/dan