WHO Attempts To Control Ebola Outbreak In Sudan

UN Health Agency Continues Efforts To Control Ebola Outbreak In Sudan

The United Nations health agency is working to control an outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in southern Sudan and is helping authorities in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to alert the local population, increase surveillance and actively search for possible cases.

As of 26 May, 20 cases, five of them fatal, had been reported in Yambio County in southern Sudan and confirmed by laboratory tests in the United States and Kenya, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

A team from the WHO South Sudan Early Warning and Response Network (EWARN) and from WHO headquarters in Geneva is continuing to work with the crisis committee to control the outbreak, it added.

The committee includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Médecins sans Frontières-France (MSF-France) and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and churches working in public health. MSF is supporting the isolation ward and case management in Yambio hospital.

National authorities in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda have enhanced surveillance in bordering areas. MSF teams in the DRC’s Province Orientale are also on the alert.

WHO has so far not recommended any special restrictions on travel or trade.

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