WHO sees progress against Ebola in Ituri as North Kivu cases surge

The head of the World Health Organisation has said there are "encouraging signs" in the fight against an Ebola outbreak in one part of eastern Congo, even as cases rise quickly in another area and officials try to contain the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there were signs of progress in Ituri province, where the outbreak is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus species. But he warned that the wider situation remained serious, saying the outbreak was in fact "many outbreaks in many places".

"We are now starting to see encouraging signs that we are gaining ground in the most affected parts of Ituri province. Transmission is going down," Tedros told reporters at the agency's headquarters in Geneva. He also said South Kivu has reported no new cases since May.

At the same time, Tedros said the outbreak was continuing to expand and cause deaths. "But make no mistake, the epidemic continues to grow and continues to kill," he said. More than 7,200 cases and more than 3,500 deaths have been reported across seven provinces, he added.

In North Kivu, Tedros said, "cases are rising fast". The number of weekly cases has nearly doubled over the past two weeks, from about 100 to more than 200. "The area is so vast that it's hard to speak of a single epidemic. It's many outbreaks in many places," he said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director for epidemic and pandemic management, said: "We can be cautiously optimistic about what is happening, but I think we need to be realistic about the road that's ahead of us. Looking at trends takes time." Last week, officials in Congo said the world's fastest-growing outbreak of the disease on record had spread to seven provinces and was showing no signs of slowing down. Overall, the WHO said there were signs of progress in some areas, but the outbreak continued to widen and kill in others.