The Bundibugyo #EbolaOutbreak can be contained despite lack of vaccines | @aljazeeraenglish|

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]The Democratic Republic of Congo's reporting 101 confirmed Ebola cases.

[00:00:05]Health teams say they're monitoring more than 1,800 contacts.

[00:00:09]The outbreak's concentrated in Ituri province. Mambasa has the highest confirmed total with 32 cases.

[00:00:16]That's followed by Bunia with 24 cases.

[00:00:19]And Mbandaka with 19. Clusters have been confirmed in North Kivu and South Kivu.

[00:00:25]And officials say Katwa has four confirmed infections, while Butembo, Komanda, and Miti Muhesa have each reported cases as well.

[00:00:35]Dr. Jean Kaseya is director general of Africa Centers for Disease Control and also a medical doctor. He's joining us from Addis Ababa.

[00:00:43]Doctor, thank you so much for your time.

[00:00:45]This outbreak went undetected and correctly diagnosed and is now said to be spiraling out of control. Is there any way of getting the spread of Ebola virus under control at this point?

[00:00:58]Yeah, this is exactly what we are discussing today because we called for a meeting of African ministers. This meeting was joined by two head of state and by a number of partners to see a way without vaccine, without medicine, the way we can stop the transmission of this disease. I'm glad to say that out of the 319 million we are looking for countries, we already have around 498 million of pledges. It means we can see how to transform pledges into concrete money and to respond to the needs of the people.

[00:01:39]Is it going to be enough to get the virus spread under control?

[00:01:46]We need to get this virus under control.

[00:01:49]We don't have choice.

[00:01:51]For 19 years that this virus is known in Africa, we don't understand why we don't have vaccine, why we don't have medicine.

[00:02:02]If this outbreak was in Europe, in US, the past 19 years, I can tell you that now vaccines and medicine would be available. But for now, because we don't have, we are just making sure that public health measures are implemented like safe barriers, like protecting health workers, and also providing communication and testing and isolating people. These are the only tools that we have so far. Yeah.

[00:02:33]You mentioned the fact that there is no vaccine and why not? And I'm sure there will be a time when people say the resources have not been allocated properly for this.

[00:02:43]If you are now having to get pledges and rally some funds, we know that there's been a shortage of funding from countries like the US pulling out as well. How much has that already affected your ability to roll out the required medical resources in the affected areas and to control the public messaging about this?

[00:03:01]You know, before this ODA cut, support from external partners was also going to to human resources working on the surveillance system, was supporting the testing, the collection of samples, the transportation of samples, analyses, and all of that suddenly stopped.

[00:03:25]But what we are saying in Africa, we are no longer crying for that. We say this is a major opportunity. It's an opportunity for Africans to start to think how to invest in the system. This is why even for this response, before going to partners and certain countries, I say you have to put your money. We got almost 10% from countries, and then we can start to get money from other sources. I think this is the sovereignty we are talking about.

[00:03:53]You sound optimistic with the potential here, but I wonder how that matches with the feeling on the ground when we see people so scared that they are burning down the treatment centers. How do you solve that problem while you are trying to combat a very dangerous and deadly virus?

[00:04:10]No, let us be clear. I take this outbreak seriously.

[00:04:15]And this is the second large uh the second largest outbreak that we have uh in when we're talking about Ebola.

[00:04:25]The first one was in West Africa in 2014.

[00:04:29]This is also because I take it seriously, I stopped my engagement in Geneva the first day when I declared this outbreak because Africa CDC declared this outbreak on 11th May.

[00:04:40]I went back. I was in the field. I was in Ituri.

[00:04:45]I had to talk with people. I had to talk for health workers, community workers, with the governor. Even today the governor of Ituri attended our meeting.

[00:04:53]I I really know what is going on.

[00:04:57]I'm not What I'm saying today is we are putting together all tools to stop this outbreak. I consider myself as a general of army who's fighting for the liberation of the people. These people from Ituri, we need to support them. Yes, I will remain optimistic if I know that we are moving in the right direction. There are still challenges, but I know we'll face these challenges and we'll win one day.

[00:05:26]All right, best of luck. Dr. Jean Kaseya Ndengue, director general of Africa Centers for Disease Control, joining us from Addis Ababa. Thank you.