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GENEVA: It is possible to contain the latest Ebola outbreak in Congo, but it will be difficult unless the right steps are taken within the next two weeks, a World Health Organization official said on Friday.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry last week declared the country’s first Ebola outbreak in three years. It is the country’s 16th outbreak overall and the first in Kasai province since 2008.
The latest data from the health ministry in Kinshasa said there were 32 suspected cases, 20 confirmed cases and 16 deaths.
Containing the outbreak is “possible, but it will be challenging if we miss the window of opportunity,” WHO Programme Area Manager Patrick Otim told a Geneva briefing, calling for more support for the government and other partners.
“We have the expertise, DRC has the expertise, but we need to be able to get the people and supplies into place and we need to be able to pay for the operations.”
The WHO said last week that Congo had a stockpile of treatments as well as 2,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which would be transported to Kasai to vaccinate frontline health workers and people who came into contact with patients.
Otim said on Friday that 400 doses had arrived at the outbreak’s epicenter in the city of Bulape, and that the campaign could begin on Saturday.
He said the WHO plans to request an additional 40,000-50,000 Ebola vaccine doses for Congo.
Several aid workers have said that Congo could struggle to mount an effective response given recent cuts to foreign assistance and the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development under President Donald Trump.
There is limited capacity to respond to the outbreak in Kasai and new treatment facilities need to be set up there “as the outbreak may expand,” Otim said, noting that one new case was confirmed 70 kilometers from the current epicenter.
There is moderate risk of the outbreak spreading to other countries “with the most prioritized country being Angola,” Otim said.

SYDNEY: Australia has failed to tackle persistent and intensifying Islamophobia, a government envoy said Friday, calling anti-Muslim hate a “deeply ingrained societal challenge”.

At a news conference in Sydney unveiling the results of a year-long inquiry, Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik said that incidents had soared in recent years.

“The reality is that Islamophobia in Australia has been persistent, at times ignored and other times denied, but never fully addressed,” he said.

Without any remedies, “Islamophobia has intensified over the past two decades”.

Among the report's 54 recommendations to parliament and government were stronger measures to ensure accountability for hate speech and greater support for victims.

“Islamophobia is not only interpersonal, it is also institutional and structural,” Malik added.

It also called for an “independent review” of the country's counter-terrorism laws as well as an inquiry into the cause and solutions of anti-Palestinian racism.

“From vile, hate-filled graffiti, the vandalism of Muslim property, and the verbal, as well as physical, violence towards Muslim bodies, Islamophobia is a part of everyday life for Muslim communities in Australia,” the report said.

Malik, appointed last year as the inuagural holder of the envoy post, shared the experiences of a Muslim family who were approached by a stranger on the train telling them he would “love to kill them all”.

“It is a moment where we decide who we are as a country and whether we are prepared to take the necessary steps to ensure that every person in Australia, regardless of faith, ethnicity or background, is safe, valued and treated with dignity,” he said.

Australia prides itself on multi-cultural tolerance, despite a troubled history with its Indigenous population.

A series of anti-Semitic incidents this year in which vandals torched a Sydney childcare centre, firebombed a Melbourne synagogue and scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish neighbourhoods sparked condemnation from Australian leaders.

And last month, thousands of people, including neo-Nazis, joined anti-immigration marches across Australia.