UN appoints Emergency Ebola Response Coordinator

The United Nations has appointed David Gressly as the Emergency Response Coordinator in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Prior to his appointment, David Gressly was the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco).

His mandate is to oversee the coordination of international support activities to fight the Ebola virus and ensure that an enabling environment – particularly in terms of security and political issues – is in place to make the fight against the Ebola virus even more effective.

Gressly will work closely with WHO, which will continue to lead all health operations and technical support activities to the Government response to the epidemic.

“The Ebola response is working in an operating environment of unprecedented complexity for a public health emergency—insecurity and political protests have led to periodic disruptions in our efforts to fight the disease. Therefore, an enhanced UN-wide response is required to overcome these operating constraints and this includes moving senior leadership and operational decision making to the epicenter of the epidemic in Butembo. We have no time to lose,” said Gressly.

The current outbreak of Ebola declared in August 2018 in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, is the tenth and most serious recorded on Congolese soil since 1976.

It is the second most serious after the one in West Africa from 2014-2016 (more than 11,000 deaths mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia).

Since then, an experimental vaccine has been developed and is currently being used in the DRC. Some 120,000 people have been vaccinated so far.