UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

Very good morning to you.

Welcome to the press briefing here at the UN office at Geneva today, Tuesday, the 19th of May.

As usual, very important briefing for you colleagues.

We will start off with a couple of announcements.

First from the UN trade and development.

Marcelo is here to talk about an important report being launched.

Then we'll go over to our colleague from The Who, who's going to talk about the World Health Assembly, which, as you know, kicked off yesterday.

Afterwards, we have a series of briefers who will address the situation of Ebola.

So without further ado, Marcelo, thank you.

Thank you very much, and good morning, everybody.

UN trade and development.

Ungtat releases the day the Trade and Development Foresights 2026.

This is an update of a flagship report on macroeconomic outlook, development challenges and so on that you're familiar with that we release end of each year.

As you've seen over the past days, headlines are focused on the conflict, of course, in the Middle East, energy prices, bond market volatility, and of course, renewed concerns about inflation.

Inflation.

A new assessment looks at what those pressures may mean for the global economy.

Now, what UMTAD has been warning about is now visible in real time.

Shocks do not remain contained.

They move across energy, trade, food and finance.

So we have three main messages.

Global growth is slowing this year.

Of course, the the shock after the latest conflicts, like to all economic modelling apart, recent trade resilience that we reported until the end of last year, even at the beginning of this year, is narrower than headline figures might suggest.

And developing economies face rising exposure to energy, food and financial pressures.

So the issue is not only the shock itself, it is really how shocks spread.

We entered the year on a firmer footing than expected on the back of 2.9% global growth in 2025, but the risks have shifted.

Trade uncertainty dominated last year.

Now this year we're looking at geopolitical instability as the increasing force behind economic outputs that we're expecting.

And we're expecting a slow down to 2.6% in the 2026.

While trade in general looks still resistant, resilient, sorry the picture is much more uneven.

If we look underneath devil's always in the detail, one finding deserves particular attention.

A larger of recent trade growth came really from AI related products, so semiconductors, servers, computing equipment.

So outside of these sectors the momentum was weaker.

Hence, we expect merchandise trade to growth to slow from 4.7% last year to between 1.5 and 2.5 in the current year.

Food security I mentioned before and food security is now becoming a macroeconomic issue.

Higher energy prices we're all aware of that raise fertiliser costs and that of course it's a ripple effect, effects food prices.

Tighter financing conditions increase the pressures further on, especially those most vulnerable around the world.

So food insecurity and financial vulnerability are becoming much closer linked, particularly, as I said, in developing countries is one of the main findings of our foresight issue today.

And a certainty of course, of course comes at a price.

It has costs, it affects investment, it affects trade, it affects borrowing costs and overall confidence.

So our report points to the renewed risks of capital outflows and tighter financing conditions in developing countries.

Needless to say that this of course adds to social pressure already existing across many countries around the world.

We have also resilience message.

It's not a story that we published today about like inevitable decline, resilience now means and of course, analysing what we, what we share with you, reducing exposure, less dependence on volatile fossil fuels, stronger financial buffers and more predictable trade rules.

The report says that countries can reduce exposure to shocks by investing in affordable clean energy, stronger financial safeguards and more predictable trade.

And here the clean energy point is of course central to that.

Everybody has my contact, if not through our friends here and we have the team ready standing by for any further insights on how we see the the rest of the year evolving both in macroeconomic terms, terms, development challenges and of course especially from the lens of trade and the developing countries around the world.

Thank you very much.

Thanks to you, Marcelo.

Do we have questions for Marcelo on the report looking in the room online?

No, I think it was crystal clear.

Thank you very much and congratulations on this report and thanks for joining us here as always.

OK, another topic, World Health Assembly started yesterday and Tarek is going to introduce our guest who's going to speak to that.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks, Rolando, and hi, everyone.

So as you know, we have started our World Health Assembly yesterday.

Just want to say welcome to journalists who are accredited specifically for the assembly and some of them are here in the room.

And again, you're always welcome to to come to see us either here or at WHO.

We will have one of the committees we will do our best to to help you out with what you need today.

Sigrid is came to to help us explain what's happening at the assembly and answer some of your questions.

Sigrid is director of WHO, director of governing bodies.

So Sigrid, please, over to you.

Thank you Tarek and good morning everyone.

It's a pleasure to be here and to see you all.

[Other language spoken]

It was quite a dense first day with not a lot of progress.

[Other language spoken]

We only have, we only managed to finish agenda item 1.

So I hope we have more progress today.

Those of you who were following would have seen that the speech of the Director General was this morning the report by the Director General.

And we've now opened the general debate.

We expect the general debate to finish tomorrow, hopefully around 2:00.

[Other language spoken]

We have always, at least we always have one committee.

So yesterday evening we had Committee A opening and Committee A is the one that covers our work WH OS work on emergencies among other things.

So discussions on current priorities and you will have a briefing later on on Ebola are very much ongoing at this point in time.

We will follow our programme through until including Saturday.

We hope to finish the work of the two committees by Friday evening and then Saturday is reserved for the adoption of the reports of the committees and any draft any any resolutions and decisions that are on the table.

We do have a number of things that have been proposed, including a resolution concerning the situation and the health conditions in the Middle East related to the current conflict there.

We also have one specific one for Lebanon, another one for Ukraine and the usual one for Palestine, the and and the occupied Syrian Golan as well.

There were quite some discussions about whether, for example, we have two reports concerning the occupied health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories, including E Jerusalem and one of them also including the occupied Syrian Golan.

Whether those could be group discussions.

It would still be two reports, 2 decisions if that should be the case, but a group discussion, which means reducing speaking time.

So you're not discussing very similar issues twice in the same committee.

But member states voted yesterday to not group these discussions.

So these will be separate discussions happening on Wednesday afternoon starting at 2:30 sharp in Committee B.

Committee B, you may have noticed we have a split venue this year.

So Committee B and plenary are happening here at the parade, whereas Committee A is holding all its meetings at the big auditorium in WHO headquarters.

So we have shuttles back and forth.

[Other language spoken]

So I think it will be more interesting if we open the floor to questions.

If you have any questions on proceedings or any specific topics, I'd be happy to take them.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Sigrid.

[Other language spoken]

We'll start with a question from Alessandro AFP.

[Other language spoken]

You're saying you're, we're going to have a briefing on Ebola today.

Do you know at about what time is it going to take place?

We'll just have now our representative DRC who will, who will dial in.

So she was referring to the briefing just after this announcement.

[Other language spoken]

That's what the no, because there's an emergency committee meeting and after there's supposed to be a briefing also no.

So yes, as the Director General said that we are convening emergency committee today.

I'm not sure that we will have a media briefing after that, but definitely there will be a communication of on the outcome of of that of that meeting.

Well, as you know, usually the the emergency committee finishes its work in late afternoon.

Then there has to be a statement and conclusions being drafted, shared, shared with member states as well.

And then we can we can, we can share it publicly.

So either tonight, hopefully tonight, but if we will, we will keep you informed if if it, if it, if it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Thank you very much.

Let's maybe take a question Rogers and then AP.

[Other language spoken]

I just wanted to know a bit more about what the emergency committee could actually decide since the fake has already been declared.

If you could talk me through the options.

[Other language spoken]

Well, the the emergency committee will issue recommendations to countries.

[Other language spoken]

Nice to see you.

Just following up on that, what when has this ever happened that the DG of WHO declared a fake without the emergency committee actually meeting first?

Is this unprecedented?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, this is the first time the Director General has has declared fake as he said in this morning in his speech, you could, you could have heard him saying exactly that or he's said this is the first time Director General has declared fake before converting an emergency committee and that's in accordance with Article 12 of the International Health Regulations.

OK, thanks for that.

[Other language spoken]

Satoko, you'll be ready.

Yes, thank you very much for doing this.

Could you give us the update on the committee a last evening specifically on item 13.3, the egoic on tops and what has been agreed yet yesterday?

[Other language spoken]

So basically what is agreed is the next steps to move forward with the next steps.

These next steps would involve quite a quite an important informal part.

So we have two weeks of informal consultations among the Member States and then to be followed by two weeks of EQIC deliberations.

This was a recommendation from EQIC itself to have two weeks rather than one week long sessions to allow for more in depth discussion and so this will go ahead as planned.

If there is an outcome, if the pub, if there is agreement on the Pubs Annex by that time, then we could be looking at a special session of the, of the World Health Assembly later this year to actually approve the Pubs Annex among WHO member states.

So that is the latest we have now in parallel, of course, there's always discussions ongoing on how exactly to broker agreement on, to negotiate agreement on the PUPS annex so that when we go into the E quick into the session of the working group, we already have reasonable expectation that the major pain points have been worked out.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

We'll take one more in the room and then one online Christian DPA, German news agency.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, I'm sitting here because I don't get juice into my laptop in the front.

Sorry about that.

My question, I just raised that with Tariq already there is confusion in Germany about whether fake is the highest alert that WHO issues or the second highest because there is this pandemic emergency.

And I'm getting confusing answers from WHO and other experts.

So some say it is the highest one and others don't.

And it would be really very helpful if you could clear this up.

Even if you say 1 shouldn't compare pandemic emergency with fake, you know, for the general public, the question is which one is more important?

So is this #1 or #2 it would be great to have that very clear, ideally like, you know, a red light red, yellow, green.

That would be perfect for everyone to understand the system.

[Other language spoken]

Pandemic emergency refers to pandemic situation.

So right now what we have is an outbreak in DRC with the exported cases in Uganda.

So we talk about the outbreak of, of, of a, of a infectious disease that is right now affecting two countries and we issue recommendations how much the committee will issue temporary recommendations for affected countries, for neighbouring countries, for, for rest of the world.

Again, obviously if you said if you, if, if, if you, if you have a pandemic situation where lots of countries are affected, you can see, you can think that it's more serious than having.

But but again, what we want to say with the fake is that it's not to create any panic, but it's to basically alert that this is a serious situation that countries should work together.

So, so we had before public health members of national concern as a highest level of alert and it still is for such events.

So again, not sure how we can really much compare, but we we don't want to come to a situation that someone thinks that, oh, this is not high enough, that is not important enough just because there is a pandemic emergency above that.

I see lots of hands popping up here.

Let's maybe go online and then go back to the room because we've had people waiting.

[Other language spoken]

And then back to Yomiyodi, then to you, Jamie.

[Other language spoken]

Let me let me take this one first before we go back to the earlier question.

This is a very direct question which you firstly should direct Gorgie should direct this question to the spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

This is a state driven matter which I cannot speak to.

So the best person for you to speak to on this particular question would be the spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

And I'm happy to provide those contacts for you, Gorgi.

But let's maybe if Tarek or Sigrid if you want to address the first part, yeah, on Ukraine, merci beaucoup.

[Other language spoken]

We do have the briefing on the briefings on Ebola just afterwards, but let's let's maybe make these fairly quick.

We'll start with Jamie and then Catherine.

[Other language spoken]

Catherine, please, you're first.

Thanks, Jamie and and and thank you, Orlando.

I was I'm going to go back to the cases we have the 10 U.S.

citizens who arrived in the United States of America and showed symptoms.

These people were led towards a delegation working in as medical missionaries in the our Congo and the head of this team was Doctor Stay stay Fords.

And according to some articles, they've been now moved to Germany and particularly Doctor Staford because he is positive.

So I'd like to have information on these cases because they developed the symptoms already arrived as they arrived in the United States of America, but they it was not precised.

Where did they land in DC, New York had the time to meet their families.

I'd like to have some details on these cases.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Catherine.

[Other language spoken]

We may, we may try to get that for that.

What is important when it comes to Ebola?

We know that it's being transmitted through through close contact and that people who have been identified as contacts of those who have been infected should be should be monitored for for 21 days that it's incubation period.

But I don't really have a particular, I know that there was some communication from USCDC.

You may want to check, check that, yes, in fact, forbidding some people coming from entry into the states for 30 days for travels who don't have US passport and coming from DRC, South Sudan and Uganda.

And, and this is a decision taken following these cases, in fact.

So could you please get back to to us about this?

I'll try to get more information on that.

And we definitely have to wait for the temporary recommendations that will be done by emergency committee.

But at this stage WHO is not recommending any, any travel or trade restrictions.

Thank you, Tarek and thank you, Katherine for the question.

Colleagues, I know that this we're sort of slowly moving into the next portion of our briefing and I appreciate this is a big item which we will be addressing.

But let's maybe take questions specifically on the World Health Assembly because we still have a number of hands online and in the room.

And then and then we can move to our brief here.

So we're joining us on from the region, in fact, John, go ahead.

Yes, Tariq, just a follow up what you just mentioned and the question by Catherine, is it not the responsibility of Germany as a member of The Who to notify through the IHR mechanism the arrival of someone who is positive with Ebola through your alert mechanism?

[Other language spoken]

I really have to check on that John and I'll come back to you.

[Other language spoken]

Of course, let's move to the questions.

Satoko, WHA Yes, I just want to follow up the the PUPS negotiation.

Is the committee going to continue to discuss the PAPS negotiation or egoic on PAPS or normal discussion on this issue in the committee A?

[Other language spoken]

It's my understanding that Committee A has concluded the discussion.

They should have resumed by now.

Normally they resumed.

So I think they have concluded for sure now.

So I can tell you only afterwards because I need to check what the progress was this morning.

But they only reconvened at 10:30 this morning.

So we're waiting for the latest.

But I don't expect great changes to what I said before on, on.

Perhaps it will be moving forward.

OK, well noted Nina, AFP yes, hi.

[Other language spoken]

I had a follow up question on that.

Actually I was from what you were saying earlier, it sounded like the decision has already been taken on pops, but I was wondering where that happened.

I, I don't I was following the discussions in committee a yesterday.

So I'm just wondering if this needs to be confirmed in the plenary or or how we will have like a confirmation of the fact that the discussions will be extended.

[Other language spoken]

Ultimately this needs to be confirmed by plenary and that will only happen on Saturday at the very latest, right.

So it depends on when they meet on the report.

So each day in the morning, the committee's report on their progress from the day before and today we have not had that yet because we are behind in the agenda.

As of tomorrow, we're going to have approvals of reports as they come into finalisation stage.

Then we will we'll know.

I I would say Friday at the very latest, Saturday we will know for sure.

Thank you very much, Sigrid.

[Other language spoken]

Oh, sorry.

No, I, oh, there you are.

[Other language spoken]

You mentioned it briefly, apologies I I missed, but that will be the debate will be this afternoon.

And given the kind of delays, could you just specify when that's taking place and what do you expect the outcome to be?

Would that be lead to a resolution and similar questions for the Iran draft translation as well?

That's an item that will come up in committee A we need to look at progress to see when it comes up.

I suspect it could be this afternoon.

And basically what we have already is a draft resolution from the GCC countries led by Bahrain and including also Jordan.

And we also have a draft resolution from Iran proposed by Iran.

So both of these will be considered and there may be a vote.

We will see how it progresses.

Thank you so much, Sigrid.

I think on that last note, that does it for this briefing on the WHS.

Thank you very much.

Good luck for the rest of the week.

I have a lot ahead of you, but it's really important that you keep us in our journalist abreast.

So thank you very much, colleagues.

As mentioned, we're going to move into Ebola.

We've already started discussing it.

Indeed, it's a front burner issue.

And I'm very happy to have with us some colleagues from the IFRC.

Laura Archer, who is IFRC lead on clinical care, public health and emergencies, and Paulo is with us as well.

Paulo Caravero from the IFRC tariff's going to stay here.

Eugene is joining us from UNHCR and maybe Tareq, if you can introduce your colleague who's joining us from Bunya Ituri province in the DRC.

[Other language spoken]

So let's let's go straight to our representative, Doctor Anna and Sia, who is who is currently in, in a Turi province and she's helping with the with the response.

[Other language spoken]

First of all, can you hear me?

Well, my Internet connection is very nice.

We can hear you perfectly and thank you.

OK, Thank you very much.

So I am Doctor Alan Ancia, I am the World Health Organisation representative in the Republic Democratic of Congo.

Good morning everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, I, I really want today to provide an update of the EBON outbreak, which is caused as you know by the Boudibundo virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo with also now imported case in Uganda.

So the government of the LC has declared the outbreak on the 15 of May following confirmation of eight cases in Ituri provinces.

I've been here in Ituri since 12 May with the colleagues, the the professional health authorities here working closely with them on the investigation that led to this confirmation.

The situation is deeply concerning.

This species of Ebola is one of which there is no licenced vaccines or treatment for the time being, but we know that supportive care is life saving.

It is occurring in a highly complex epidemiological, operational and humanitarian context.

There is a lot of insecurity, population displacement and we are walking in both densely populated area.

Bunya is a town but also in area that are hard to reach.

We have now significant uncertainty about the numbers of infection and how far the virus has spread.

As of today, we have more than 500 suspected case included 130 suspected deaths that have been reported by the health authorities.

So far, 30 cases have been confirmed in the country.

The outbreaks now affect 10 health zone in Italy provinces.

It has also reached N Kivu with confirmed case in Butembo and in Goma.

As I mentioned, Uganda has also confirmed 2 imported case.

Ladies and gentlemen, community engagement will be key as it is only when the community understand the risk and can work with the response that such outbreak are brought under control.

We are working closely with the government, the provincial authorities, the local leaders and other partners to listen to the communities and work with them to protect them and to save their their life.

We are now trying to map and address gaps.

We are supporting the scale up of surveillance, contract tracing, laboratory testing, clinical care and cross-border preparedness.

We have deployed more than 40 experts on Sunday from the World Health Organisation and from the Ministry of Health to the field and we have sent 12 tonnes of supply.

An additional 6 are arriving today.

These include personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, samples samples, laboratory samples, shipment, medical drugs and other treatment.

We have also already brought tents on the ground.

We are working with partners such as Alima and Dr Without Border to set up treatment centres and expense care in affected area.

We are also at the international level looking at what candidate vaccines or treatments are available and if any could be of use in this outbreak.

There is this afternoon AWHO technical advisory group that will meet to provide further recommendation to The Who and its Member States on which potential vaccine should be prioritised.

Ladies and gentlemen, what I see here in the field is extremely vulnerable people, fragilised population, fragilised by years of of communal conflict.

But I see also people walking together while facing great uncertainty as of the scales or the extent of this outbreak.

But I can assure you that we will continue to update you and we will walk together until we have stopped this outbreak and we have disrupt the chain of transmission.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Doctor.

[Other language spoken]

We're going to go to the next briefers and then we'll take questions for all.

So we'll start with Eugene of UNHCR.

Good morning, everyone.

Following WH OS briefing, it's just such a heavy heart that we are here UNHCR to highlight the severe impact of our ongoing outbreaks in Eastern DRC on specifically displaced populations, especially those two provinces, Ituri and North Kivu, most affected by continuous conflict and displacement.

Those two provinces, Eturia and N Kivu, there is a more than two million internally displaced population and returnees where humanitarian needs are already overstretched and then severe, have a severely constrained access.

UNATC is a particularly concern that capacity for healthcare in these provinces has been significantly weakened, including during last year's conflict.

This has left to displace the community with the severely reduced access to medical care, disease surveillance, isolation capacity and refer system at a time when rapid detection and response are critical.

The outbreak also raised a serious concern for refugees living in those affected provinces.

In Ituri, approximately 11,000 S Sudanese refugees require preventable assistance.

In Goma alone, more than 2000 urban Rwandan and Burundian refugees needed support for prevention measures including soap and simply hand sanitizers.

Community outreach activity and risk awareness campaign are being reinforced to ensure refugees, internally displaced population, retainee and host community have access to accurate information on prevention measures and early detection.

In North Kivu specifically, unity started closely following the closure of the Goma and Giseni and Bukaba border.

We're assessing implication for the cross-border movement, voluntary repatriation and humanitarian access while strengthening prevention measure at the Goma 20 centre where we are accommodating refugee returnees.

UNHCR and partners are coordinating with the health authority to support community outreach and prevention effort in the coming days.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Eugene.

Now over to Paulo from IFRC.

Thank you, Orlando.

We'd like to brief you on the Red Cross response to the Ebola outbreak in DRC.

And we have here Laura Archer, which is our lead in clinical care and public health and emergency.

Laura Floresios, thank you, and good morning, and thank you, everyone for being here in person and online.

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as we're hearing, is a rapidly evolving public health emergency.

As we've heard from WHO as well, as well as our colleagues, early detection, community engagement and local public health actors and actions are critical to contain this outbreak.

The International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies has activated our highest level of emergency response.

We are scaling up our activities including the activation of our regional and global emergency surge deployment mechanisms.

IFRC is deploying specialised public health teams and experts to the affected areas in the coming days.

Coordination mechanisms have been activated between IFRC teams in Kinshasa, Kampala, Nairobi, Geneva to support the response.

Safe and dignified burial kits are currently being dispatched to the impacted areas from both Kinshasa and our warehouses in Dubai.

The Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of Congo, supported by IFRC, is at the heart of this response.

They are working alongside health authorities and party partners in all areas impacted by this outbreak.

Red Cross staff and volunteers in DRC have extensive experience in Ebola outbreak response.

They are directly supporting their communities through public health activities including safe and dignified burials and risk communication and community engagement.

This alongside pre-existing public health initiatives aimed at disease prevention and health promotion.

We all know Ebola outbreaks can escalate quickly if cases are not identified early, communities lack reliable information, or health systems are overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, we are seeing all of these come together in this outbreak.

The evolving situation underlies the need for strong local regional coordination, preparedness and sustained international support.

The ability of our IFRC network to be responsive and flexible is essential.

We have learned from previous experiences that outbreak response has a greater likelihood of success when communities are actively engaged.

People need reliable, evidence based information, they need to know how to protect themselves and their loved ones, and they need to know when and where to seek care.

They need practical, respectful, culturally appropriate support rooted in the realities of their communities.

Local Red Cross volunteers play a vital role in sharing, trusting excuse me in sharing trusted information, countering misinformation, and supporting public health efforts within communities.

Community based action is one of the most important tools we have to help people protect themselves and reduce further spread of the virus.

Red Cross volunteers and staff who have been active in these communities for years, and they continue to provide support during this emergency.

We are grateful to them and to their families.

In closing, the IFRC continues to work in close collaboration with the Democratic Republic of Congo Red Cross.

And our broader network globally to assess needs and coordinate with partners while we scale up our readiness and response activities in DRC as well as in surrounding countries.

The Red Cross is uniquely placed to support this work through its long standing presence and trusted relationships within communities.

Combined with a global network of experts.

Our message today is clear.

This outbreak can be contained if communities are at the heart and the centre of this response, and that action must be local, adaptable, coordinated and sustained.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks to you, Laura, and to all our briefers colleagues, over to you.

If you could indicate to whom you point your question, that would be helpful to start with.

Catherine Franz von Katz Yes, good morning, good morning to all and and thank you for the lady, if she's still online, if she could say a few words in French that would be helpful for French speaking media.

DRC being a French speaking country and questions you.

You mentioned the difficulties in the fields and we know that for nearly one year the region where you are staying is occupied by M23 troops and also one these army.

Some medical experts, Congolese medical experts did mention the fact that it was long to identify this kind of Ebola due to the fact that the laboratorium based in these occupied regions were not qualified enough to identify this kind of virus.

So could you comment on that?

And Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe, who is a very famous Verilogue who discovered the Ebola virus, said that normally at the end of this month, meaning the end of month of May, molecules should be identified of existing vaccines to fight against the spreading of Ebola.

And as it was suggested by one of my colleagues, I'm asking you also the question regarding the 10 U.S.

citizen who left the our Congo for United States of America and one of them was positive after his arrival in United States and evacuated to Germany.

Do you have any information on these cases?

[Other language spoken]

Mercy, Madam, lots of questions for you.

Doctor Anseo, over to you.

We we don't a pretty complex.

The population song.

Yeah, example the district every month the security, the artisan and mining effective monastic complicated.

It comes with a very increasing monitor, the pre effective no, no, no no no supply chain.

Shortage of.

For example the, the, the, the.

It don't don't situation OK Deja 10 more Hajil not known with a more on police set epidemic Luanda parcel more this American she effective the media.

Happy contact.

[Other language spoken]

The contact.

Thank you, Orlando.

In case.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, the molecule, so effective.

The the possibility, the clinic, we.

[Other language spoken]

Is the person to this one on dispute the experience the the the.

[Other language spoken]

The the.

The.

The the.

The Ebola population, the.

To this one also propose the question Discrete ensemble mayors approach to the epidemic.

President objective for epidemic.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, 2 questions for Doctor Ancia please and one more general for UNHCR and IFRC.

Can you explain the four week detection gap at the beginning?

Why was it not detected earlier?

And do you now have sufficient numbers of the appropriate tests for this strain of the virus or maybe are they in the six tonnes of supplies coming today?

And the broader question for you or or for others is have US funding cuts in the displacement camps or in healthcare in the two countries made the detection of Ebola more difficult or it's spread more likely?

[Other language spoken]

Start with you doctor.

[Other language spoken]

So, so in term of the, the lab capacities, no, this is the first question, sorry.

Oh, no, the the four weeks, Yeah, the four weeks.

Well, there, there, there is a part that I really personally don't understand neither as I said, the, the, the, the hotspot right now, the epicentre of, of the outbreak is in a very remote area and secure area.

And where there is, because there is a lot of artisanal mining, there is a lot of movement of, of population.

And, and, and we heard Doctor Without Borders actually working there and, and, and they were hearing of, of movement of, of corpse.

Why for weeks?

[Other language spoken]

But when we arrive so, so, So what happened is actually there is a lab, there is a laboratory in, in, in Bunya that has just been rehabilitated.

I want to see it.

[Other language spoken]

We don't have yet all the human resources that is there.

But, but, but it's a it's going to be beautiful when it will be very, very fully functional.

The problem is that the laboratory did have reagion for Ebola, but they had a reagion for Ebola Zaid.

So they had done some, some diagnostic that were coming negative for Ebola.

And so they, they never saw that it could be another subtype.

So they were thinking of malaria.

When I arrived, they were saying, oh, doctor, and it's actually a combination of malaria and salmonella.

But we, we could smell that it was not right.

So what we did is that we took the sample and we send them in, in the National Institute of Biomedical Research in, in Kinshasa, where Professor Muyembe is, is working.

And as soon as we send the sample there that were, that were diagnosed, they were saying 1st and it's Ebola non Zaire.

And then they did the genomic sequencing and they could confirm that it was Ebola Budi Bonjour.

So so that also caused the delay, but cultural misbelief and really, I mean, I don't know delays.

I think that the, the, the, the surveillance capacity and the, the, the, the investigation capacities are, are very limited in, in this region in, in general.

So, so although as I said, I, I don't fully understand it and we will keep trying to, to understand it.

[Other language spoken]

But now we have diagnostic and, and, and we really need to go fast to, to really try to stop the spread of the, of the, of the, the, the disease further.

But we really don't know.

As I said, we, we, we don't understand yet the, the extent of the spread of the, of the disease.

On the decrease of funding, yes, yes, tremendously.

So when I arrived here, I had a meeting with, with all the, the HealthPartners and it was the first thing that they were saying.

It's, it was really, you know, the decrease of funding has been, has had a tremendous impact on their, on their action.

You know that even with OCHA on, on the humanitarian access, the humanitarian resec had asked for us to completely decrease the, the, the, the, the people targeted by our humanitarian action.

In general, the health sector has been the funding for the humanitarian health sector has decreased by 70 person.

The the the financing for water and sanitation, which is also extremely important, has decreased by 73% / a year.

So imagine, yeah, the impact is, is tremendous.

Actually, I went, I think, yeah, it was the day before we were waiting for the, for the laboratory sample.

I went to see a displaced camp in, in, in Commanda and and there are still displaced people and there is no more help going there.

So the, the people don't have any more water.

They have to walk.

There is a lot of all elderly people.

There were a lot of disabled people and they have to walk kilometres before they can access healthcare.

And we were discussing actually, OK, we will find a way, but we will come back with, with minimum help there because because we cannot leave those population like that without any, any, any assistance.

[Other language spoken]

And, and it is what is happening here.

You can ask any humanitarian partners.

[Other language spoken]

UNHCR is there and they know how much they've been affected in the, in the Democratic Republic of Congo with, with decrease of funding.

They, they, they eventually better than me.

It's, it's their finance.

We've been affected as well, but we've been we've been lucky, as you know, at at last year.

What helps Assembly many of our member states, all other member states said, OK, you've got a twenty person budget cut at least for for our core funding and, and, and we will step up.

So all our Member states step up and, and put an additional 20% increase in our, in our core funding, which was, which was important, but all our voluntary contribution have have tremendously decreased.

And we are, we, we have to prioritise it.

It, it is complicated mostly when you face those vulnerable people, we just want to help them.

And yes, we don't have the finance to, to be able to do everything that we would really, really, really want to do for the people in, in, in, in this country.

[Other language spoken]

I think Eugene want to add some.

Thank you very much for your question and thank you.

Doctor mentioned about UNHCR funding situation.

This particular outbreak is concerning us among others crisis we are working on.

There are several reasons, 1st that I already mentioned during my briefing that a lot of IDP sites in those area destroyed including health facility operated within those IDP or nearby IDP sites last year.

And the second DRC situation has been always underfunded severely and then by year by year without with the US funding, it has been always underfunded situation.

We are suffering with the very limited funding every year and then how to manage the situation?

3rd, that people are on the move.

As I mentioned that the 2 million people are internally displaced or IDP returnees in those two provinces need to RE and N Kivu.

If you add a S Kivu, it's even more so.

People are continuously moving because there is ongoing insecurity and conflict in those provinces.

So it is a very difficult to access all of those people whereabout and as well as that insecurity hinder the our humanitarian access as well.

And lastly, that these two provinces, the basic service, the access of a basic service has been always a challenging including health services and not just the health services, but any services, the food, the basic need, everything and the school, every basic services that the human being should have has been always challenging in those two provinces.

So our call is again to international community to please, please don't forget those people in DRC, especially in those two provinces.

[Other language spoken]

And really just to echo what my counterparts are saying, I think we're we're seeing generally a very, very scary trend of of decreased funding for humanitarian health.

So not just one government, but overall.

And I think that this is an example and this is a moment where we as the international community need to show solidarity and step up and really invest to get this virus stopped and to stop this epidemic.

And we all know that it is much more expensive to respond than it is to prevent.

And so I think moving forward, I'm hoping that that trend will reverse to allow the capacity to have all of the preparedness and readiness in place and not only the response.

[Other language spoken]

This is indeed a fundamental question.

I think Yens from Archer want to join us and add some, some notes.

Yeah, thank you, Rolando.

And just very quickly, I'm not going to say that the funding is good because it is not, but I want to nuance it a little bit.

The appeal, the global appeal for the DRC this year asked for $1.4 billion.

We have received 478,000,000 that is 34% health out of that is 105 million and we have received about 32 to 33 million of that.

Now when we look at the global the the one I just mentioned, 1.4 billion, the total ask 34% funded who's funding that the United States is funding 61%.

[Other language spoken]

You know what what what you asked specifically because you asked about US funding cuts.

Now of course, that has hurt.

61% of what has been received is also from the United States.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for that clarity.

[Other language spoken]

AP Thank you very much.

Yes, partially answered my question.

I'm trying to digest it.

But my my question is for Doctor Ancia, if you could.

You said a lot in French and I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly.

So could you tell, could you tell us about, I'm sorry, OK.

Could you tell us about the the possibility of the Herbivo vaccine, why you specifically mentioned that the clinical trials and and what time frame that you expect that we might get some clarity about when, when that might be available and whether or not there are other options?

And is there anything that we could expect from the emergency committee about that advice on clinical trials?

Also, you mentioned before that you're working with partners going back to the US issue.

So this is the second question.

You mentioned the partners CDC has indicated that they have sent, I believe it's 30 or 40 people there or to to Congo.

How much are you working with CDC and how much is the sort of, let's say separation between WHO and and the US government having any impact on whether or not you can work on the ground with CDC experts?

And finally for Miss Archer, you, you mentioned that IFRC is sending in teams.

We we we heard the 40 experts from WHO that doesn't sound like given the breadth of this crisis, 40 does not sound like a whole lot of people.

How maybe WJ can address that?

But could you tell us from your side how many experts, how many teams you're you're able to contribute?

[Other language spoken]

OK, over to you Doctor NCO Yes, yes, thank you.

On, on the, on the vaccine, frankly, I would prefer I, I would prefer that we can discuss after the meeting this afternoon because I, I, I don't want to say things that that are not based on, on, on exact science.

So, you know, there is a technical advisory group this afternoon.

And I do think that there will probably be another, another opportunity for, for the media to get to get the proper answer.

I don't want to, I really don't want to give information that is not the more correct, scientifically correct because, because that can create havoc and and misinformation.

So if you allow me, let's wait for the meeting this this afternoon.

For the time being, I'm on the ground.

[Other language spoken]

I know I should be in Kinshasa, but I'm still here because as you said, there is not enough expert.

The 40 that we have deployed, we, it's what we had, you know, available in, in the country.

We managed to get a plane on Sunday.

We managed to get 2 plane on Sunday.

We, we took the stock that we had in Kinshasa and we brought it all here and, and we took all the human resources that were available in Kinshasa and in a few of our super offices and we brought them here.

[Other language spoken]

For example, in terms of supply, we had the first play on on on Sunday 5 tonnes.

[Other language spoken]

Today we've got an additional 8 tonne.

We are bringing more and more expert as as well.

We are bringing expert from the DRC.

But for example, yesterday evening I've been approved mobilisation of additional expert that are coming from the region and from and from headquarters as well.

So no, it, it, it's not the end, it's just the beginning.

It is, I want to talk what we've got on, on the field right now, what we managed to get on day three of the response.

We've been very fast and, and, but but we are just killing it.

We've got, for example, the team that is leaving tomorrow from here to go to Butembo because we know that that Butembo is a difficult situation as well.

[Other language spoken]

So we've got a team that is moving from here and we've got other people from Kitchensa that are that are coming and replace the people that we're sending in, in Butembo.

So that is just the beginning.

For the time being, Africa, CDCUSCDC, they're not in the field.

We're we're here with the, there is UNICEF, IOM, Mezzan Frontier, Alima, the Red Cross and and and a few other partners, Samaritan Pers, Who's who will also be involved.

[Other language spoken]

He is helping with the transport USCDC Africa, CDC.

I'm not in, in, in the ground for the time being.

But of course there is a coordination that is that is already organised here and, and in Kinshasa around the Emergency operations centre.

So, so led by the Ministry of Health, The coordination is led by the Ministry of Health.

We're respecting the Lusaka agreement for one coordination, one plan, one budget.

So we are supporting the coordination of the national authorities and there of course, so you've got USCDC Africa, CDC and I can tell you that on the ground we've been working very, very well with the with the US government.

We understand that we cannot receive the funding.

[Other language spoken]

We want to keep exchanging information and we want to collaborate for the sake of the population of the Republic Democratic of Congo.

And it is what we are doing.

I I just want to add because I missed, I missed one of the question, the previous question on the laboratory capacity.

So in Bunya as I said, there is really now a brand new laboratory that is that is being set up.

And we have now brought a few diagnostic test and reagent since Sunday.

So since yesterday the the laboratory in Bunya is functioning and we are able to confirm.

So yesterday we confirmed an additional 30 cases.

So, so, so the number of confirmed cases has increased 34 confirmed cases by now.

So and we are bringing more and more capacities.

We will bring mobile laboratory in the hotspot in Morello.

[Other language spoken]

We will have a mobile lab in one para in Goma.

There is a very, very good laboratory.

It is the IT was supported by and established by an city Mayfield, just at the end of the previous outbreak.

It is supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Research and it is good.

I haven't, I have not yet seen it, but when we had the confirmed case of, of Goma, I ask around, I asked my team on the ground, I called Professor Muyembe in, in, in Kinshasa and I said, can I really believe that this case is a confirmed case?

Everybody has told me, yes, I haven't been there, but I trust the expert, national and international expert who have told me that, that we can, that we can rely on this information for now.

But we are really scaling up, really scaling up on laboratory.

You know WHO we have the, the, the contingency fund for emergencies and we put a lot of money for laboratory in there.

UKFCDO has given us very, very quickly 1,000,000.

I think we were talking together on, on Sunday, they said, OK, we released the money.

I don't remember if I signed Sunday or, or, or Monday.

And therefore we are really starting to be able to scale up the, the, the early first response.

It's not enough.

We need much more.

But, but, but, but we do what we can with what we have right now.

And, and frankly, once again, I know a lot of additional partners I'm interested to to help us and we, we are really thanking them deeply and, and, and, and, and it's together that we will be able to, to answer to this ombre alone.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, doctor.

And before you for your follow up, I think Laura, I wanted to answer this first part of your question.

Yeah, thank you for your question.

So the way we work as as as Red Cross is we really try to have the response as local as possible.

And we really tried to walk that talk.

So currently our approach in Congo specifically is we're supporting the the Congolese Red Cross.

They have activated 300 volunteers to the areas impacted and more to come as needed.

At the same time, we know that this is big and we we do want to have a no regrets approach.

So we have activated regional surge.

So folks from the regional office have gone in, I don't have exact numbers, but they're gone.

They've gone to set up base camp, look into security measures and really set the stage.

And then in parallel, we have our global surge.

In terms of global surge, we have several teams on standby and are waiting to better understand what the ministry would like the Red Cross to contribute to the overall response.

So one team that will likely be deployed is a safe and dignified burial support team.

So what this team does is the procurement, the logistics, the training and supports to allow the local responders to amplify their response for safe and dignified burials.

We also have infection prevention control teams on standby, again, waiting to see the request from the ministry and not wanting to overload our local national society with tonnes of people coming in until we know that there is a job and that they are welcome.

So we're really going to be agile and flexible.

I know those are buzzwords, but also as the outbreak unfolds then we will respond accordingly.

So that is our approach.

I will mention as well, we have over 100 volunteers deployed in Uganda, on the Uganda side of the border supporting with community based surveillance.

And we also have all of our national societies in the region also scaling up their preparedness and or readiness activities, keeping a close eye on the IP situation.

[Other language spoken]

You have a follow up, I know, but just to remind you that of course we have our mission on the ground.

MONUSCO is in the ground, deployed in the region and it's, it's mobilised, its mandate is among other things, to coordinate with the Congolese authorities, coordinate with, with partners to help with the protection of civilians and to obviously provide health security in affected areas.

So that is that is of course important to to to bear in mind.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Doctor Ancia.

I just have a couple of quick follow-ups.

The 1st is, could you tell us the distance between Bunya and the hotspots, how far those are away?

And then the second question, I'd really like to, I'd really like to go back to your mention of Herbivo in French, because it was pretty clear from what you said that you sounded like you were saying that it could exacto Mon la Frazque was a Tito Francais me, Yeah, effective in vaccine.

About Elbe Voki Poet effective, if I understood that correctly.

Could you please just clarify that for whether or not you actually think that that has promised?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, of course, of course, Yes, yes.

And first of all, let me tell you that here Monsco is here and and they're helping tremendously.

They have given us three ambulance, they are giving us protected car so that we can go in in unsafe area.

They have they, they have supporting us with a cargo 130 so that we can bring our supplies.

So they're, they're fantastic.

And, and, and it's great to have them.

Frankly, they're helping me because I'm The Who representative.

I need to move with security.

I've got UNDSS as well with helping me to move in in those place.

So, so no, the, the, the partnership on the ground is still limited, but it's absolutely fantastic.

So, so the, the Mongolo is actually at 76 kilometres from Bunya.

It's it's more or less 3 hours by Rd.

The road is not bed, but it's unsecure.

[Other language spoken]

It is, it is orange.

It's not right.

It's it's it is orange.

So, so you know, we cannot there is a curfew.

We cannot go be we cannot go beyond I think 5:00 there.

I have to to remember because the curfew are different different places here.

So yes, Herbivo is one of the the potential vaccine that is that is looked for for for eventually be able to come and and and and bring additional prevention and protection among the communities here.

[Other language spoken]

But what I what I know it's actually it would take me what I know from WHO it it would take two months for it to be available.

But we hope, we hope because I don't think that in two months we will be done with this, with this outbreak because we don't, we still don't know the the spread and it's already in two provinces and in two very difficult provinces.

[Other language spoken]

We can only hope.

[Other language spoken]

Before we go together, I think it was a question, Sir.

You had a question in the middle.

Sorry.

2 questions, one for Miss Archer.

You mentioned Dubai and supplies.

Has the trouble in the Straits of Hormuz influenced your ability to distribute essential supplies?

And a question for the doctor in the field, Is the strain of Ebola you're seeing today presenting differently from the Zaire strain?

And might that explain the confusion or the delay over 4 weeks?

Thank you very much.

Maybe we'll start with Laura.

Yep, yes, thanks for your question.

I was chatting this morning actually with our procurement folks.

And I'm, I'm happy to say we have not had any issues getting our stocks from our warehouse in Dubai.

We fly Dubai to Entebbe and then go overland from there.

So our first big shipment, I believe, arrived or is arriving this week and then a much larger one expected in a couple weeks.

So, so far, I'm so good on that.

[Other language spoken]

OK, Doctor over to you on the yeah the strain.

[Other language spoken]

In, in terms of supplies for the time being, our first supplies were already pre positioned in, in in Kinshasa because we know we are prepared, we know that that that we've got those kind of outbreaks.

So our first replies will arrive from there, the second one from Nairobi and the plane that is arriving today is doing Dakar, Nairobi and then Kinshasa.

So we have not yet because we've got those prepositioned warehouse in, in, in Dhaka and in Nairobi.

It's our regional hub.

In terms of the, IT is, it is possible, you know, you know, the, the, the, the diagnostic differential is a bit, is, is a bit complicated.

And the symptoms are fever, myasthenia, fatigue, diarrhoea, vomiting, and then in some cases bleeding.

And, and, and normally it's bleeding from it's, it's epistaxis mostly.

And, and, and the bleeding comes after, you know, it comes, it doesn't come on day one.

It comes on day five.

And we have seen, we have not seen that, that those kind of bleeding epistaxis or, or the Melena in, in, in most of the case.

[Other language spoken]

But I, I really do think that the, the, the problem was more really that, you know, there has been two outbreak of Ebola Budi Bonjour since, since, since it is known, it has been discovered in, in Uganda.

So there's been an outbreak in Uganda and an outbreak in, in DRCDRC.

They are very much used to the Ebola Zaif and, and, and as I said, in Bunya, they were, they were negative test for, for Ebola zaif.

And, and so they said, no, it's not Ebola.

And then frankly, but, but we, we, when we arrive, it's really what we did actually, we really started looking at the, the case definition.

So, so, so really, what are you saying?

What are you seeing?

What are the people, What are they suffering?

And we work very closely with, with the epidemiological unit to, to, to have a very more precise case definition.

And then we saw that there were some, some people with still the, the, the bleeding at the later stage of the disease.

And, and we said, no, we, we, we, we need to go to, to, to, to the laboratory in, in Kinshasa, send the samples and, and really confirm.

So it's, it's how it went.

It's the same thing, you know, for the time being, we are telling you that we've got 135 suspected deaths.

We've got 4 confirmed for the time being.

Because when we arrive, really all the people at some point, even even the health professional panicked at some point.

So they put all those, those, those days all together.

And it is one part of our team.

It's what they're doing right now.

They're cleaning data.

They're really looking and, and trying to understand how many days we've got because we don't think that all the 135 are actually coming from, from the, the, the Ebola buddy Bonjour virus.

So, so we've got a team that is cleaning all those data.

It is complicated, but we'll get the and it is important.

We need to understand better the epidemiological transmission.

We need to be able to understand the speed of the transmission.

We need to be able to understand you've got one case infected, how many people are transmitted because from those very important information, we will be able really to, to, to, to provide a better a better answer and, and work better with the communities and on on trying to disrupt the, the the chain of transmission.

So, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm going to stop there because I can't talk for hours.

But indeed it's a very, very, I mean, it's immensely important, of course, in lots of details.

We have still have a couple of questions.

If you can stay with us.

Doctor Catherine.

Yes, you, you, you did mention the possibility of clinical trials when you when you spoke in French.

So would those would those be conducted by using the modified aviable vaccine and who would be responsible for giving the green light for these kind of clinical trials?

[Other language spoken]

OK, Maybe it will be available vaccine once again.

I said the meeting is this afternoon.

The minister when he was here, he said, yeah, there will be probably clinical trials.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been doing previously clinical trials.

We've got vaccine trials that are ongoing for mpox for the time being, for example, in the, in the province of, of of 1/4.

So, so there are research and development studies that are ongoing in in this country, particularly for Ebola and pops and and African trypanosomiasis as well.

So yeah, there will be, there will be clinical trial which molecules, which vaccines.

Let's wait for this afternoon to have the to have the the more information on that what will be what will be done?

You know from the show, we've got the a specific system, which is called the early release of of how is the name again, ERUL, sorry, it just escaped my mind.

But but we've got a specific system when we when we want to release pre qualified molecules that are not that are not fully known and and we're doing it.

It's based on a on a risk assessment and on trying to do greater good.

We think we don't have the full, full, full scientific evidence, but we've got enough scientific data to say maybe, you know, rather than living letting those people die, maybe we can, we can try to use those, those drugs and do clinical trial.

So we will use this system as we've been using them in, in, in, in DRC for years, as we've been using them in, in, in, in Uganda last year when we had the Ebola Sudan.

[Other language spoken]

But of course those mechanism, it is the Ministry of Health who is deciding and what we do what, what the, The Who group of expert is doing is providing the best available data on safety and on efficacy of those molecule.

And it's what what will be discussed this afternoon.

We're going to look at several molecules and looking at the best safety first.

When we are, when we know that the safety is there, we will look at the efficacy and then the Ministry of Health and the the national authorities will decide whether they want to go or not with clinical trials.

[Other language spoken]

I just want to really clarify because it may not be clear there.

So this is not emergency committee.

So we are talking emergency committee will, will discuss will discuss the outbreak and will issue temporary recommendations.

We are talking here about a technical advisory group that it's more scientific body that looks specifically into recommendations on which candidate vaccines should be prioritised for clinical trial.

But as doctor and said, the, the, the decision will be made by by countries and, but just, and we will, if, when we get some outcome of this technical advisory group meeting, we will, we will communicate.

It's, it's the meeting is today.

I don't know what time it will finish and I don't know what time we will have results.

[Other language spoken]

So we have a few more hands in the room, but then we'll have to this will be the last batch of questions, including one online.

[Other language spoken]

And then for the, I think I speak for all of us, the earlier you can get the results on the TA, then the tag and and then the EC, the better for us.

Obviously for Doctor Ansi, you mentioned that just going back for, I think for a lot of people, they're going to want to know just what the sort of forecast is for this.

You mentioned that the potential candidate vaccine at best, you don't have a good visibility on the spread and it's still very early.

Is there any way you mentioned a 2 month period.

Is there any way based on previous Ebola outbreak dynamics, how long we can expect this to go on for and and how many people could potentially be affected given the very quick number of suspected cases that we've seen?

Can, is there anybody out there that's projecting how many people could be affected?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, yes, there is war that is on.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, yes, there is war that will that will be ongoing and based mostly with our team that is that is now in in Berlin.

[Other language spoken]

We have also today actually Imperial College has been contacting us and once eventually to work with us on this.

Today there is a lot of epidemics.

You know, there was a even there has been a problem with with the with one of the release of The Who mentioning a positive case in Kinshasa.

There is no positive case in Kinshasa.

[Other language spoken]

So we've got, we've got a lot of infodemic right now.

And, and what we have to do is really being able to, to, to confirm where the, the hotspots are and, and, and, and, and, and walk and really contain containing this very early.

But we will do, we will do of course, those, those scientific extrapolation and we, we, we are starting to to do them.

But we really, you know, it is so complicated like like, I don't know, somebody was talking of American bodies or people.

[Other language spoken]

It is crazy.

I am called all the time for stories.

That doesn't make sense and we really need to make to have clarity on the actual situation.

Where are the cases?

So for the time being, as I said, really a big foyer in Bunya Rampaha Mungalu Mungalu, probably the epicentre, but we still don't have the index case.

And then, and then really a movement which is really related to the movement of population.

The, the people are, are moving between South Kivu and Ituri and, and so Butembo and then and then Goma and, and, and, and we hope, I mean, the extent of the outbreak will depend of the rapidity of, of, of our response, the rapidity of, as I said, being able to, to, to stop the, the transmission.

But it is because we don't have a vaccine and therefore we need to rely on the, on the contribution of the population.

When I say two months, it was two months about the availability of a vaccine.

It is not two months before the, the, the, the, the outbreak will be, will be done.

Remember, remember the, the previous one, it took two years.

[Other language spoken]

OK, so who has a question?

Hands up 123.

And we also have Kazmir online.

Let's make this quick because the doctor is also joining us from Bunia.

So let's start off with John.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, my question is to Yens.

[Other language spoken]

Last Thursday, I think the US government wrote a cheque for 1.8 billion for Archer in that priority list for the US of the 20 countries, the DR Congo is there.

Is Mr Fletcher looking to activate funds from this new batch of funding towards ADRC outbreak?

As you know, the the funds that are managed by are managed in the pooled fund in, in the DRC and it's the humanitarian country team with the humanitarian coordinator in the lead who decides where that money goes.

I think it's fair to to say that this will certainly be part of their discussions.

[Other language spoken]

Who's next?

[Other language spoken]

My question is to Doctor Ansha, what do we know about patient zero?

And do we know how the first person got infected in this outbreak?

[Other language spoken]

As I said, we don't I don't think that we have the patient zero for now.

What we know for now is that on 5th of of May, there was there, there is a person who died in in Bunya.

The body was brought back in, in Mangualu and the body was put in a in a coffin.

And then the family decided that the coffin was not worse the the person and therefore what they did, they changed the coffin and, and, and then there was the, the funerals and, and, and it's from where it started.

That's what we know for sure.

But we, we need to go when we are in Mungwalu and we are doing further investigation because once again, I'm hearing a lot of rumours that, that, that it's, it's predate earlier.

But for the time being, we, we we don't have yet all the all the epidemiological link to be able to say when this outbreak has what is the patient zero or the index case.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, doctor.

Well noted.

OK, Emma and then Alexander, you're OK.

[Other language spoken]

And then last question will be online to Kasmir, Emma Reuters.

[Other language spoken]

Dr Andrea, thanks for sticking with us.

Just on the answer you gave about how long it took to get the right tests, could you just clarify how when you got the right tests for this strain, please?

[Other language spoken]

The the test, the test was the test is available, but the test was available in Kinshasa.

It was not available in, in Bunia.

Now we have this test in, in small quantity available in Bunya.

We brought it on our first plane on Sunday and and the laboratory since yesterday is able to, to do the testing.

We're gonna, we're gonna bring an additional machine now Altona which will enable us to do much, much, much more tests by the hours.

[Other language spoken]

Yesterday evening in our debriefing meeting, we were talking as well of bringing a lab in, in, in Butembo and in Goma.

There is an excellent lab over there as well.

So, so, yeah, but but what we, what we are doing in WHO we are, we are now really buying and mobilising additional reagent and additional everything that we need the, the, the, the sample transportation kit, you know, it's just very specific.

We need to put those kit, those samples in a triple package, very, very specific because sometimes they have to go in plane.

So we've got measures that are, that are agreed upon by WHO, by IAEA to be able to, to make sure that when we transport those samples, we do it with all the, the, the, the, the, the safety measure necessary.

So we are bringing all those equipment now closer to the response in Bunya and then in the two in the two hotspot.

But but for the time being, what is available in the country is very, very, very limited and and it's one of the one of the area where we need additional support.

Thank you very much, Doctor Kasmira Online.

Sorry, thank you very much for taking my question and for the briefing today for all the information you've given us on, on the, just a follow up question on that actually.

So on the available equipment that you have at the moment, how many tests are you able to do per day?

You said it's very limited, but could you quantify that?

And then on the survival rate, could you elaborate on kind of what the survival rate is for this particular strain on the range and how that kind of varies on depending on the day?

That you're treating the person and yeah, thank you.

[Other language spoken]

So yesterday we, we did 3030 confirmed test and the lab expert, I took note of it.

So I'm trying to find it.

But with when we've got the Altona, I think she was saying that we would be able to, oh, here we go with the Altona.

So what we've got for the time being, we are able to do 6 tests, 6 tests per hour.

So it's very limited when we'll go to Altona, which should come tomorrow, we will be able to do 96 tests per per hour.

And and what is your second question?

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, I missed it myself.

[Other language spoken]

The survival rate?

[Other language spoken]

So, So what we know for the time being is we're looking at the two previous outbreak, the outbreak in Uganda had a lethality of between between 40 and 50% because actually there was also a lot of cases that were never that was suspected, they were never really confirmed.

The one in DRC had a lethality of 30%.

So as I said, the good news is actually that this subtype of, of Ebola virus, the Bundy Bunjo is, is, is a little bit less virulent, the desired 1.

So we'll see what, what Professor Muyembe said to the press yesterday.

I didn't talk to him about it, but he mentioned actually that this Boudiboujo virus subtypes is not coming.

So, so we need to look for where it is coming from.

It's an orphan virus for the time being.

We saw that it would be linked to the virus that, that that initiated the first outbreak in, in Uganda.

Apparently it is not.

So it's an orphan virus.

We don't know from where it is coming from for the time being.

OK, thank you Doctor Ancia and colleagues, lots of information and I have a feeling there'll be a lots more to come.

[Other language spoken]

Just everyone wants to thank you.

[Other language spoken]

I just wanted to thank you Doctor Ancia for coming.

All the questions that we're asking testify to the interest about this situation.

So thank you very much.

We hope we can see you again.

And I just wanted to ask you a very tiny little thing, just generally who is responsible for detection in these cases, given that the the situation is so complicated in that part of Congo, who generally would be responsible for for detecting the outbreak normally the the, the provincial health authorities?

[Other language spoken]

So, so we've been, we've been training them and, and, and we have in place what we call the rapid response team.

So when there is an alert, the we, we send rapid response team that has been treated.

It's a multi multidisciplinary group of people who go in an alert and then do investigation, do epidemiological research, start eventually, you know, community mobilisation.

If if if the the the alert is really likely to be to be an outbreak.

So, so actually there, there has been one of those team, mostly from national experts going in Mongolou.

But as I said, we, we, we, we will have to understand better what, what went wrong there.

It, it's very interesting on before coming to, to, to, to Bunya, I was not coming for that.

I was coming because I just arrived in, in DRC and I wanted to go and visit Ituri because of its specificity, this movement of population, the, the communal fighting and, and, and really I, I, I knew that it was a, a province that I didn't know, I've been in DRC before, but I didn't know that specific province.

And so I wanted to come and visit it because I wanted to make sure that the, the support that we are providing to the, to the provincial authorities and to the national authorities is, really, is really adapted.

[Other language spoken]

So I really wanted to understand the situation, those many displaced camp where there is no aid anymore that is provided and, and, and very different area with, you know, attacks from many, many different militias here and, and different ethnicities in, in this province.

So I, I came for that.

And then as we met with the, with the provincial directorate of health, it's when we heard about it.

It's very interesting.

Before, when I was still in Kinshasa, my team, every morning when I, when I wake up, I, I, I open my emails and the first thing that I read is the, the alerts all over the country.

So I've got a team that is doing that, you know, looking at, at social media and so on.

And we had two alerts in, in, in Ituri, in this province and, and two were zonatic disease.

It was 1 was an increased number of pork that are dying.

And we are actually looking if there is a link right now.

So, so, so this is an investigation that was ongoing and another one which was about increased diarrhoea, but we, we didn't have that alert.

So it didn't go, as I said, the outbreak has been rampant for four days.

You, you have to understand that the, the movement of population here is, is, is unclear.

It is related to also mining business and so on.

So, so there is a lot of things that are happening silently.

[Other language spoken]

Well, Doctor, your presence there is immensely important and, and your presence here at this briefing, I echo the sentiments of my colleague.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you to our colleagues from IFRC to you in HCR to OCHA and of course The Who largely, and this is a lot of information, a lot more information to come.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of you, Doctor, And thank you again for joining us.

Stay safe and and thanks again for all the important work you're doing.

[Other language spoken]

OK colleagues, thank you for your support.

Of course, you can always rely on us, Doctor, you can always rely on us here to get the word out.

[Other language spoken]

I just have a few short announcements before we wrap up.

Thank you again to to all of you.

Just, I know it's a long briefing, just a few announcements Comdabitu.

I just wanted to make sure you're aware of few important developments.

The Secretary General, as I announced on Friday, is currently in Japan.

We shared a couple statements and readouts with you yesterday, one on the future of multilateralism and one readout of his meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan as well.

And just to let you know that today, the Secretary General, he remains in Tokyo where he's taking part in this chief Executive Boards coordination meeting.

That was the CEB.

[Other language spoken]

We have, As I mentioned already, the Human Rights Council's working group on the Right to Development kicked off its meeting yesterday, the 18th of May.

It lasts throughout the week in The Tempest Building important subject on the right to development.

Just to keep your eyes on what's happening in New York, we have the Security Council meeting publicly on Ukraine in the morning, their time, our afternoon, 4:00 PM and then late in the evening our time, they will be meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

An important report out from our colleagues Odessa, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is the 2026 Mid year update on the global economy.

You heard from Marcelo at the onset of this briefing.

This report echoes some of those important issues including speaking to the crisis in the Middle East and how that has had a major shock on the world economy.

An important report which we'll share with you later today.

And last, on a brighter note, I should say we have the opening of, if I can just conclude, sorry, we have an event taking place this Thursday.

Some of you are aware you've seen the unveiling of the Celestial Fear over there.

It's a nice globe which was the Celestial Fear sphere.

There will be an A nice event taking place this Thursday at 4:00 PM the 21st of May to unveil this.

It was first installed in 1939 to mark the 20th anniversary of the League of Nations.

We'll have a very nice event with the director general giving remarks.

The host country will be represented by Ambassador Iffkovitz.

There will be refreshments.

There will be music.

It's an important symbol, of course, about international cooperation.

And it will spin.

It only spun for a very short while when it was first erected in 1939, when it first installed, and it'll spin again.

So if you're free, please join us on Thursday at 4:00 PM outside in the park.

That is it for me.

[Other language spoken]

OK, then have a good afternoon and see you here on Friday.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 19 May 2026