<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The head of the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world-health-organisation" rel="" target="_blank" title="World Health Organisation"><span>World Health Organisation</span></a><span> visited eastern Congo’s Bunia, a city at the heart of an outbreak of a rare type of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/ebola-virus" rel="" target="_blank" title="Ebola"><span>Ebola</span></a><span>, where the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/virus" rel="" target="_blank" title="virus"><span>virus</span></a><span> is spreading faster than the response — despite better-organised health facilities and new aid arrivals.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the importance of building community trust, ensuring safe burials to prevent the spread of the outbreak and urged countries to reconsider travel bans and border closures, saying they “discourage transparency”.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“The Democratic Republic of Congo has faced Ebola before, 16 times, and has ended every outbreak. This is the 17th. That history gives me real confidence,” Tedros said alongside Congo’s health minister.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/goats-record-export-trade-global-demand-australian-meat-surges-farming/c6f260e3-7b50-404e-b221-46674360efa6" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Aussie goat meat exports skyrocket in record-breaking year</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The health organisation said the latest official figures showed 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Neighbouring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Bundibugyo virus, the current species of Ebola, has no approved treatment or vaccine.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Bunia in Ituri province on Thursday. More shipments are expected in the coming days. The US announced $US80 million ($111.2 million) in additional aid on the same day, bringing its total commitment to almost $130 million.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/ebola-virus-outbreak-who-chief-visits-eastern-congo/0389823a-c0dc-4d4a-9eaa-872de44c9d7c" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Response efforts at Bunia's Rwampara and General hospitals appeared more organised, with additional staff, protective gear and medical supplies, though patients continue arriving around the clock, according to an Associated Press reporter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The response has not kept pace with one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks on record, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, warned.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Dr. Alan Gonzalez, MSF’s deputy director of operations, said in a statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gonzalez called for an immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/british-expats-why-manchester-family-moved-back-to-australia-after-returning-to-england-exclusive/ba9c9a8b-bfe4-411c-b100-b128fb35da0c" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>British family sold everything to move to Perth. They left within months</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centres.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“We are not here to tell people what to do, we are here to listen,” Tedros said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Building trust takes time, and it starts with listening."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I understand how painful it is to lose someone, and how much it means to honour them properly, but certain practices, including touching the bodies of those who have died from Ebola, can spread the virus further,” Tedros said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Attacks in Ituri by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The illness also has been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Uganda and Rwanda have closed their borders, while the Trump administration last week banned entry of non-US passport holders who had recently visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I would also ask countries that have imposed travel bans or border closures to reconsider,” Tedros said, saying such measures "discourage the transparency that saves lives”.</span></div></div>