UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday in a visit for a first-hand assessment of the fightback against Ebola.
Guterres will visit Ebola treatment centers and meet with Ebola survivors and health workers in the province of North Kivu during a three-day visit. He’s also expected to meet with Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in the capital, Kinshasa.
The UN chief’s visit comes even as the death toll climbed above 2,000 according to the government data that was released on Friday (August 30), in what has become the second-worst epidemic of the deadly virus on record.
One of the disease’s latest victims: a nine-year old Congolese girl was found to have the disease after crossing the border into Uganda.
Despite the development of effective vaccines and treatments, responders have found cure and prevention an uphill struggle in the remote, conflict-hit areas of eastern Congo.
Much of the community are skeptical of the response effort.
The majority of cases have been concentrated in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, in the country’s northeast, but cases have emerged in other parts of the country.
It is the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history after more than 11,000 people were killed in Guinea, Sierra Leone.
