World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, where he urged the population to seek medical care promptly and observe safety measures during funeral rites.

The WHO chief's visit took place amid the ongoing spread of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. According to Ghebreyesus, there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for this variant of the virus, making palliative care, including isolation of patients, fluid replacement, and pain relief, particularly important.

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced 16 Ebola epidemics and successfully contained them each time. This is the seventeenth outbreak. This experience gives me real confidence," the WHO director noted.

According to the latest data, 1,028 suspected cases of the disease have been registered in the country, 225 of which have been laboratory confirmed. The WHO has information on 906 cases of infection, 223 of which have resulted in death.

Cases of the disease have been confirmed in three provinces of the DRC, as well as in neighboring Uganda. Medical and humanitarian organizations are reporting shortages of personal protective equipment, including masks, as well as a shortage of medical personnel in the affected regions.

On May 17, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda a public health emergency. Further concern has been raised by reports of a possible case of the disease in Brazil, involving a man who recently returned from the DRC.