UNICEF Senior Health Specialist Jerome Pfaffman made the call after a visit to the northeast region of the country, the epicenter of the latest outbreak.
“UNICEF will need to triple its budget to respond to this complex crisis. This includes about $70 million for epidemic control activities, $30 million to build community capacities in at-risk areas, and another $70 million to deliver essential services,” Pfaffman said on Tuesday.
The call comes some two weeks after WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak is the tenth and was declared in August 2018. It is considered the largest ever outbreak, with cases surpassing 2,500. It is also the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, behind the West Africa outbreak of 2014-2016.
According to UNICEF, there were 718 confirmed Ebola cases among children as of 28 July – more than half of them (57%) below 5 years old.
According to MSF, reported Ebola cases since early June average between 75 and 100 each week.
In his address on Tuesday, Pfaffman urged that the DR Congo people be mobilized and empowered in order to fight against Ebola.
“We cannot defeat this outbreak unless communities are fully mobilized. They are best able to do the things that matter in terms of curbing the spread of disease — contact tracing, household decontamination as well as provide safe and dignified burials,” Pfaffman said.
The fight against Ebola in the DR Congo has been complicated by various facts such as the conflict in the country, which the UN says makes it impossible for its workers to access some affected areas.
