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WHO: US experts not needed to fight Ebola outbreak in DRC

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Health workers embrace whilst putting on their personal protective equipment before heading into the red zone at a newly build MSF (Doctors Without Borders) supported ebola treatment centre (ETC) on November 7, 2018 in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo. – The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to more than 200, the health ministry said on November 10, 2018. (Photo by John WESSELS / AFP)

The head of the World Health Organisation says it doesn’t need experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or any other US government agency to fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, insisting: “We can cover it.”

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the UN health agency mostly needs the United States to continue the financial and other support it has provided.

He noted the US and many other developed countries have security guidelines that prevent deployments of experts in conflict zones like the Ebola-hit area of eastern DRC.

Rebel groups there have complicated efforts to battle what is now the world’s second-deadliest Ebola outbreak.

Tedros told reporters on Monday in Geneva: “We can mobilise from other parts, from those institutions who don’t have very strict security provisions like that. We can cover it.”

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