<
https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/13/who-director-general-in-drc-war-greater-concern-than-ebola/>
"The director-general of the World Health Organization is “really worried”
about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda,
already the third largest on record.
In an exclusive interview with
STAT, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the
conditions he saw after returning from his second visit to the affected area
since the outbreak was declared on May 15, and designated a public health
emergency of international concern on May 17. Already there have been at least
708 confirmed cases combined in the two countries, 141 of whom have died.
WHO staff in the field in the DRC have faced death threats. Surveillance of
contacts of cases remains well off what is needed to contain an outbreak — on
June 11, only 28.4% of the contacts of known cases had been followed up. People
on the ground told the WHO leader they either don’t believe Ebola exists, or
that it isn’t one of their top concerns.
“When the community is not taking it as its priority, it’s very hard,’’ Tedros
said in a rare one-on-one interview with
STAT.
He recalled a discussion he had with some community leaders who pressed him on
why the world only cares about their region when there is an Ebola outbreak
underway. With long-standing conflict, hundreds of thousands of displaced
people, widespread hunger, and a multitude of diseases that kill more
frequently than Ebola does, the conclusion some have reached is that the rest
of the world only cares because it’s afraid Ebola will spread beyond the DRC’s
borders.
“Ebola is a lesser evil. That’s how they put it,” Tedros said.
Uganda enjoys political stability and has significant experience containing
Ebola; the outbreak there at present seems largely under control, with only 19
confirmed cases and two deaths among confirmed cases so far. But in
northeastern DRC, the deadly disease is circulating unchecked."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Ebola - Hantavirus - Covid: June 18, 2026
https://www.patreon.com/violetblue/posts/ebola-hantavirus-161406105
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
