{"id":96775,"date":"2026-09-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96775"},"modified":"2026-09-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:00:00","slug":"response-must-outpace-spread-of-ebola-un-relief-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96775","title":{"rendered":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Although the UN and its partners have scaled up their response, <strong>a $1.1 billion funding gap remains as the DRC grapples with the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>During the first 100 days of the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed 635 cases and 399 deaths across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n<p>In the first 100 days since the DRC Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak was declared on 15 May, there were 5,515 cases and 2,642 deaths.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Monday, local authorities had reported 6,100 confirmed cases and 2,950 deaths<\/strong>, with more than 5,000 cases recorded in Ituri Province alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe response is growing and has been scaled up, but the virus is moving faster,\u201d\u00a0relief chief Tom Fletcher said. \u201cAnd <strong>unless we scale up urgently, more lives will be lost and the threat will grow<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Cautious success in Uganda<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Fletcher commended the DRC Government and UN partners for their efforts to contain the epidemic.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to Uganda, where the WHO last week declared an end to the country\u2019s latest Ebola outbreak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Uganda succeeded in containing the virus<\/strong> through rapid case detection and confirmation, contact tracing, isolation and clinical care, infection prevention and control, community engagement and strengthened surveillance,\u00a0according to WHO Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The UN\u2019s migration agency, IOM, has also <strong>conducted nearly 23 million health screenings in the DRC and neighbouring countries<\/strong>, helping monitor population movements, identify potential cases and reduce the risk of transmission across borders, UN Spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Fletcher has allocated more than $57 million from the UN\u2019s donor-supported\u00a0Central Emergency Response Fund to Ebola response and preparedness efforts in the DRC and neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n<p>But the response is unfolding against the backdrop of an already severe humanitarian crisis, particularly in eastern DRC, where conflict between Government forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels has displaced communities and complicated efforts to reach people in need.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not simply a health emergency,\u201d Mr. Fletcher said. \u201cIt is also a humanitarian emergency <strong>layered onto many existing humanitarian emergencies<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, recently responded to clashes between the Congolese Armed Forces, Uganda soldiers and suspected members of the so-called Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-affiliated insurgent group based in the east \u2013 the epicentre of the record outbreak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MONUSCO is also expanding programmes that have helped more than 60,000 people safely access farmland and schools<\/strong> in Djugu territory, supporting protection efforts and helping create conditions for displaced families to return home, Mr. Dujarric said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>World must prioritise Ebola response<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Fletcher urged governments to ensure humanitarian workers can reach people in need and to keep the battle against the runaway outbreak high on the international agenda, which he said is essential to preventing the virus from spreading.<\/p>\n<p>Closing the funding gap and bringing the outbreak under control will require sustained political commitment and a coordinated international response, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the experience, the tools and extraordinary people risking their lives to stop this epidemic. What we need now is political will, access and resources,\u201d Mr. Fletcher said. \u201c<strong>We have beaten Ebola before, and we can do it again<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although the UN and its partners have scaled up their response, a $1.1 billion funding gap&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[367,4862,10302,1473,820,2248],"class_list":["post-96775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-chief","tag-ebola","tag-outpace","tag-relief","tag-response","tag-spread"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-01T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-09-01T12:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":560,"height":340,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96775"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief","datePublished":"2026-09-01T12:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96775"},"wordCount":523,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif","keywords":["chief","Ebola","outpace","relief","response","spread"],"articleSection":["Africa"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96775","url":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246","name":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif","datePublished":"2026-09-01T12:00:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788306345_image560x340cropped.avif","width":560,"height":340},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/09\/1168246#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Response must outpace spread of Ebola: UN relief chief"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}