Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters
The World Health Organization launched a $500 million plan to curb the spread of Ebola in Africa, though questions remained over its capacity to secure the financing. The campaign came with confirmed cases in DR Congo topping 500; officials there have struggled to trace exposed contacts and to keep patients in care facilities.
Misinformation and roiling regional conflicts have compounded the challenge for authorities, with rangers from the Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest, being recruited to fight the disease too. Meanwhile modelling from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the spread on a “dangerous trajectory.” The US CDC said the modelling showed that without strong public health interventions, the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain — for which there is currently no vaccine — could become even larger than the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa.
