BUNIA, DR Congo (AFP) — UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called Saturday for more international help to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as he arrived in the eastern province worst-hit by a severe outbreak.

The World Health Organization director general told reporters in Bunia, capital of Ituri province, that the international community was helping the DRC Government cope with the outbreak.

But he added that “community ownership” was also needed — including overcoming “mistrust” and false information — and an increase in financial support from other countries.

“We are here to discuss with the community, to see how the response is running, and if there are challenges to help,” he said.

“You’re not alone in this. We’re here, we’re with you, and we will see this through together,” he told people in Ituri at a press conference later.

The highly contagious haemorrhagic fever is already present in three eastern DRC provinces and in neighbouring Uganda.

There have been at least 1,077 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including 246 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said last Thursday. There have been nine confirmed infections in Uganda, including one death.

The true reach of the outbreak in the DRC, which is thought to have been circulating before it was detected, is likely to be much wider, the WHO has warned.

The vast impoverished central African country — whose mineral-rich east has been plagued by three decades of conflict — has limited capacity to conduct laboratory tests to confirm cases.

Uganda closed its border with the DRC last week and ordered a 21-day quarantine for anyone arriving from that country.

On Friday, the WHO announced that a patient had recovered on Wednesday, left hospital, and was discharged into the community after two negative tests. WHO’s Anais Legand said it marked a “first” among patients who had been confirmed Ebola carriers in the current outbreak.

Ebola, which spreads through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The deadliest outbreak in the DRC claimed nearly 2,300 lives out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said of the latest outbreak that “never has an Ebola epidemic recorded so many cases in the first days after it being declared”.

It said there were not enough medical experts deployed in the afflicted region.

State services are largely lacking in Ituri province, where access is hindered by insecurity due to the presence of armed groups and militias.

“There is experience in this country, and under the Government’s leadership, and especially with community ownership, we can stop it,” said Tedros.

“These are the ingredients which are important, of course, with the support from the international community as well. So the issue is in our hands.

“If we do our best, it can be stopped.”

No vaccine or specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind the current outbreak.

But the head of CDC Africa said on Thursday that a vaccine should be ready by the end of the year.

On Saturday, the WHO said its experts had considered several potential vaccines that were “promising enough” to warrant evaluation in clinical trials.

“In the meantime, our priority is to stop transmission with tools that we have used for decades of Ebola responses, which include disease surveillance, rapid testing and diagnosis, contact tracing, isolation and care for patients, infection prevention and control, community engagement, and safe and dignified burials,” it added in a statement.

North and South Kivu provinces, that have also recorded Ebola cases in the outbreak, have been plagued by near continuous violence for three decades.

Much of the affected regions are controlled by the Rwanda-backed armed group M23 which has been battling government forces.

Millions of people have fled the fighting and are living in displacement camps with poor hygiene conditions.

Nearly a million of those displaced are in Ituri province, where the prospect of the epidemic spreading throughout the camps has sparked alarm.

“If Ebola comes, we’ll be wiped out as we’re packed like sardines,” Dorcas Mapenzi said at the Kingonze camp on the outskirts of Bunia.