UN Geneva Press Briefing: UNCTAD, IFRC, WHO, OCHA, UNHCR

Very good morning to you. Welcome to the press briefing here at the UN office at Geneva today, Tuesday 19 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 undad releases today 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 UNCTAD 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 shock after the latest conflicts, like to all economic modeling apart, recent trade resilience that we reported until the end of last year, even in 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 enter 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 slowdown to 2.6% in the 2026, while trade in general looks still resistant. Resilience, Sorry, the picture is much more uneven if we look underneath. Devil's always in the detail. One finding deserves particular attention. A large share 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 fertilizer costs. And that of course, it's a ripple effect, affects 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 foresights issue today. And uncertainty, of course, comes at a price. It has costs, it affects investment, it affects trade, it affects borrowing costs and overall. 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, analyzing 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 rest of the year evolving, both in macroeconomic 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, I think it was crystal clear. Thank you very much and congratulations on this report and thanks for joining us here, as always. Okay, another topic, World Health assembly started yesterday and Tarek is going to introduce our guest who is going to speak to that. Thank you.

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 come to see us either here or at who, where we'll have one of the committees. We will do our best to help you out with what you need. Today, Sigrid came to help us explain what's happening at the assembly and answer some of your questions. Sigrid is WHO Director of Governing Bodies. So Sigrid, please, over to you.

Thank you, Tariq. And good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be here and to see you all. As Tariq said, we started our assembly yesterday. It was quite a dense first day with not A lot of progress, I must say. We only managed to finish agenda item one. 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 o'. Clock. In parallel, 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, who's 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 program 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 resolutions and decisions that are on the table. We do have a number of things 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 and the occupied Syria in 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 East Jerusalem, and one of them also including the occupied Syrian Golan, whether those could be group discussions. It would still be two reports, two 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 Palais, whereas Committee A is holding all its meetings at the big auditorium in WHO headquarters. So we have shuttles back and forth. It's working quite well so far. 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. Thank you.

Thank you, Sigrid. Yes, we'll start with a question from Alessandro afp.

Yeah, thank you. Just a quick one.

You're saying 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 from DRC who will dial in.

Sorry, just Referring to the briefing just after this announcement, we have three briefers on Ebola.

No, because there's an Emergency Committee meeting and after there's supposed to be a briefing also no.

So, yes, as Director General said, 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 on the outcome of that meeting. Well, as you know, usually the Emergency Committee finishes it's working late afternoon, then there has to be a statement and conclusions being drafted, shared. Shared with Member States as well. And then we can share it publicly. So either tonight, hopefully tonight. But if we will, we will keep you informed if it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Thank you very much. Let's maybe take a question from Reuters and then apologize.

Hey, good morning. I just wanted to know a bit

more about what the Emergency Committee could

actually decide since a fake has already been declared. If you could talk me through the options.

Thanks.

Well, the Emergency Committee will issue recommendations to countries.

Good morning, Terry.

Thank you. Nice to see you. Just following up on that. When has this ever happened? That the DG of WHO declared a fake without the Emergency Committee actually meeting first? Is this unprecedented?

Thanks.

Yes.

This is the first time the Director General has declared fake, as he said in this morning in his speech. You could have heard him saying exactly that. He 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.

Okay, thanks for that. We have a couple questions online. Satoko Yomi already.

Yes, thank you very much for doing this. Could you give us the update on the Committee last evening, Specifically on item 13.3, the EGWEC on PAPS, what has been agreed yet? Yesterday.

Thank you. Yes, thank you. 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 IGWIC deliberations. This was a recommendation from ICWIC 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 there is agreement on the PAPS Annex by that time, then we could be looking at a special session of the World Health assembly later this year to actually approve the PAPS 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 PABS annex, so that when we go into the icuic, into the session of the working group, we already have reasonable expectation that the major pain points have been worked out. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We'll take one more in the room and then one online. Christian dpa, German News Agency.

Thank you. 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 one shouldn't compare pandemic emergency with fake, you know, for

the general public, the question is, which

one is more important? So is this number one or number two? 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. Thank you.

Look, it's again, like pandemic emergency refers to pandemic situations. So right now, what we have is an outbreak in DRC with exported cases in Uganda. So we talk about the outbreak of infectious disease that is right now affecting two countries. And we issue recommendations. The emergency committee will issue temporary recommendations for affected countries, for neighboring countries, for rest of the world. Again, obviously, if you said if you have a pandemic situation where lots of countries are affected, you can think that it's more serious than having an income. 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 and countries should work together. So we had before public health emergency 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 don't want to come to situation that someone thinks that, oh, this is not high enough, that it's 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. Sorry, let me just go. Gorgi has a question. And then back to Yomiuri. Then to you, Jamie.

Invotation. Negative.

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. Gorgy 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, Gordgi. But let's maybe if Tarek or Sigrid, if you want to address the first part. Yeah. On Ukraine.

Initiation de la Federation de Russi Quier. Soitans le point plus. Emergency work.

Colleagues. I know there's still a lot of hands up in the room and online. We do have the briefing on briefings on Ebola just afterwards. But let's maybe make these fairly quick. We'll start with Jamie and then Catherine. Yeah, okay, Catherine, please, you're first.

Thanks Jamie, and thank you, Rolando. I'm going to go back to the cases. We have 10 US citizens who arrived in the United States of America and showed symptoms. These people were led. It was a delegation working as medical missionaries in in Dr. Congo. And the head of this team was Dr. Steifords and according to some articles they've been now moved to Germany and particularly Dr. 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 it was not precise. Where did they land? In D.C. new York. Had they time to meet their families? I'd like to have some details on these cases. Thank you.

Thank you, Katrina. I don't have details on a particular case. We may try to get that for that. What is important when it comes to Ebola, we know that it's being transmitted through close contact and that people who have been identified as contacts of those who have been infected should be monitored for 21 days, that it's incubation period. But I don't really have a particular. I know that there was some communication from US cdc, you may want to check that.

Yes, in fact forbidding some people coming from entry into the states for 30 days for travelers who don't have U.S. passports and coming from DRC, South Sudan and Uganda. And this is a decision taken following these cases, in fact. So could you please get back to us about this?

I will 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 travel or trade restrictions.

Thank you, Tarek, and thank you, Catherine, 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 we can move to our briefers who are joining us 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 IHI mechanism the

arrival of someone who's positive with Ebola

through your alert mechanism? Thanks.

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

Thank you. Of course. Let's move to the questions. Satoko Wha.

Yes, I just want to follow up the PAPS negotiation. Is the committee going to continue to discuss the PAPS negotiation or Igweg on PAPs or normal discussion on this issue in the Committee A? Thank you.

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 pubs. It will be moving forward.

Okay, well noted. Nina afp.

Yes, hi, thank you. 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 was following the discussions in Committee A yesterday. So I'm just wondering if this needs to be confirmed in the plenary or

how we will have like a confirmation of the fact that the discussions will be extended.

Thank you.

It's correct. 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 committees 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 finalization stage. Then we'll know, I would say Friday at the very latest. Saturday we will know for sure.

Thank you very much. Sigrid Kazmira, Geneva Solutions. I think we lost you, Kazmira.

Oh, sorry.

No, there you are. Okay, go ahead. Sure.

Just a question about the GCC supplementary agenda item. You mentioned it briefly. Apologies 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 resolution and similar questions for the Iran draft resolution 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 who. Thank you very much. Good luck for the rest of the week.

Thank you so much.

I have a lot ahead of you, but it's really important that you keep us and our journalists 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 Archa, who's IFRC lead on Clinical Care Public Health University, and Paolo is with us as well. Paolo Cravero from the ifrc. Tarek's going to stay here. Eugene is joining us from unhcr and maybe Tarek, if you can introduce your colleague who's joining us from Bunya, Ituri province in the drc.

Thanks a lot. So let's go straight to our representative, Dr. Anna Ansia, who is currently in a tour replacement province and she's helping with the response.

Yes, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, can you hear me? Well, my Internet connection is very.

We can hear you perfectly, Anne. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. So I am Dr. Anne Ancia. I am the World Health Organization representative in the Republic Democratic of Congo. Good morning everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, I really want today to provide an update of the Ebola outbreak which is caused, as you know, by the Woody Bunjo virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo with also now imported case in Uganda. So the government of DRC has declared the outbreak on 15 May following confirmation of eight cases in Ituri provinces I've been here in Ituri since 12 May with the colleagues, 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 licensed 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 working 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 cases, including 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 zones in Itori provinces. It has also reached North Kivu with confirmed case in Butembo and in Goma. As I mentioned, Uganda has also confirmed two important cases. 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 both 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 life. We are now trying to map and address gaps. We are supporting the scale up of surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, clinical care and cross border preparedness. We have deployed more than 40 experts on Sunday from the World Health Organization and from the Ministry of Health to the field. And we have sent 12 tons of supply. An additional six are arriving today. These include personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, samples samples, laboratory samples, shipments, medical drugs and other treatment. We have also already brought tents on the ground. We are working with partners such as Alima and Doctors Without Border to set up treatment centers and expand care in affected areas. We are also at the international level looking at what candidate vaccines or treatment are available and if any could be of use in this outbreak. There is this afternoon a WHO technical advisory group that will meet to provide further recommendation to WHO and its member states on which potential vaccine should be prioritized. Ladies and gentlemen, what I see here in the field is extremely vulnerable. People fragilized, population fragilized by years of communal conflict. But I see also people working 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 work together. Until we have stopped this outbreak and we have disrupt the chain of transmission. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Dr. Ancia. 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 who's briefing. It's 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, Ituri and North Kivo. There is more than 2 million internally displaced population and returnees where humanitarian needs are already overstretched and then severe have severely constrained access. UNHCR is particularly concerned that capacity for health care in these provinces has been significantly weakened, including during last year's conflict. This has left a displaced community with severely reduced access to medical care, disease surveillance, isolation capacity and referral system. At a time when rapid detection and response are critical. The outbreak also raises serious concern for refugees living in those affected provinces. In Ituri, approximately 11,000 South Sudanese refugees require preventive assistance. In Goma alone, more than 2,000 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, returnee and host community have access to accurate information on prevention measures and early detection. In North Kivu specifically, UNHCR is 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 center where we are accommodating refugee 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 Paolo from ifrc.

Thank you, Rolando.

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 on clinical care and public health and emergency.

Laura, floor is yours.

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 our colleagues, early detection, community engagement and local public health and actors and actions are critical to contain this outbreak. The International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crested 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 specialized 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 DRC is at the heart of this response. They are working alongside health authorities and 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 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, 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 collision 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 center of this response and that action must be local Adaptable, coordinated and sustained. Thank you.

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. Start with Catherine. Franz Von Katz.

Yes. Good morning. Good morning to all 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 mentioned the difficulties in the field and we know that for nearly one year the region where you are staying is occupied by M23 troops and also Rwandi's 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 to identify this kind of virus. So could you comment on that? And Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe, who is a very famous virologue 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. citizens who left the Arkongo 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? Thank you so much. Merci Madame.

Okay, lots of questions for you. Dr. Ancio, over to you.

Par exemple, le District. Mining committee. Present. De la roche active. Deca. Contact.

Thank you.

Inefficiency. Is enough.

Esc? Londa, tunem, apricot.

Could we unmute her please? Yeah.

Okay. Effective the possibility. The fair Clinique. On the person, et cetera. Armonda,

Mel Siboku. Dr. Reuters.

Good morning.

Yep.

Two questions for Dr. 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 tons of supplies coming today?

And the broader question for you or

for others is have US funding cuts in the displacement camps or in health care in the two countries made the detection of Ebola more difficult or its spread more likely? Thank you.

Start with you, doctor.

Yes. Yes. Okay, so. So in terms of the lab capacities. No, this is the first question. Sorry. Oh no, the four weeks. Yeah, the four weeks. Well, there is A part that I really personally don't understand neither, as I said, the hotspot right now, the epicenter of the outbreak is in a very remote area, unsecure area, and where there is, because there is a lot of artisanal mining, there is a lot of movement of population. And we heard Dr. Without Border is actually walking there and they were hearing of movement of corpse. Why for weeks, I really don't know. But when we arrive. So what happened is actually there is a lab, there is a laboratory in Bunya that has just been rehabilitated. I went to see it. It's amazing. We don't have yet all the human resources that is there, but it's going to be beautiful when it will be very, very fully functional. The problem is that that laboratory did have reagent for Ebola, but they had a reagent for Ebola Zaic. So they had done some diagnostics that were coming negative for Ebola. And so they never saw that it could be another subtype. So they were thinking of malaria. When I arrived, they were saying, oh, Dr. Ann, it's actually a combination of malaria and salmonella. But we could smell that it was not right. So what we did is that we took the sample and we send them in the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa where Professor Muyembe is, is working. And as soon as we send the sample there that were diagnosed, they were saying first and it's Ebola Nonza. And then they did the genomic sequencing and they could confirm that it was Ebola Buddha Bunjo. So that also caused a delay, but cultural misbelief and really, I mean, I don't know delays, I think that the surveillance capacity and the, the investigation capacities are very limited in this region in general. So although, as I said, I don't fully understand it and we will keep trying to understand it. It's long, but now we have diagnosed it and we really need to go fast to really try to stop the spread of the disease further. But we really don't know, as I said, we don't understand yet the extent of the spread of the disease. On the decrease of funding? Yes, yes, tremendously so. When I arrived here, I had a meeting with all the health partners and it was the first thing that they were saying. It was really the decrease of funding has had a tremendous impact on their action. You know that even with OCHA on the humanitarian access, the humanitarian reset had asked for us to completely decrease 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%. The financing for water and sanitation, which is also extremely important, has decreased by 73% over a year. So imagine. Yeah, the impact is tremendous. Actually I went, I think, yeah, it was the day before we were waiting for the laboratory sample. I went to see a displaced camp in Commander and they are still displaced people and there is no more help going there. So the people don't have any more water. They have to walk. There is a lot of elderly people, there were a lot of disabled people and they have to walk kilometers before they can access health care. And we were discussing actually, okay, we will find a way, but we will come back with minimum help there because we cannot leave those population like that without any assistance. It's not possible. And it is what is happening here. You can ask any humanitarian partners. It is what is happening. UNHCR is there and they know how much they've been affected in the Democratic Republic of Congo with decrease of funding. They can be better than me. It's their finance. We've been affected as well, but we've been lucky. As you know, at last year World Health assembly, many of our member states, all of our member states said, okay, you've got a 20% budget cut at least for our core funding and we will step up. So all our member states step up and put an additional 20% increase in our core funding, which was important, but all our voluntary contributions have tremendously decreased and we have to prioritize. It is complicated. Mostly when you face those vulnerable people, you just want to help them. And yes, we don't have the finance to be able to do everything that we would really, really, really want to do for the people in this country.

Absolutely. Okay, I think Eugene wanted to add something.

Thank you very much for your question and thank you Dr. Mentioned about UNHCR funding situation. This particular outbreak is concerning us among others crisis we are working on. There are several reasons. First, that I already mentioned during my briefing that a lot of IDP sites in those areas destroyed, including health facility operated within those IDP or nearby IDP sites last year. And the second DRC situation has been always underfunded CPA 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. Third, that people are on the move, as I mentioned, that 2 million people are internally displaced or IDP returnees in those two provinces, Turi and North Kiev. If you add a South Kiev, 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 whereabouts. And as well as that insecurity hindered our humanitarian access as well. And lastly, that these two provinces, the basic service, the access of a basic service has been always challenging, including health services, and not just the health services, but any services, the food, the basic need, everything and then school, every basic services that 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.

Thank you, Laura.

Thank you. And really just to echo what my counterparts are saying, I think we're seeing generally a very, very, very scary trend 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, 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. Thanks.

This is indeed a fundamental question. I think Jens from OCHA wanted to join us and add 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 asks for $1.4 billion. We have received 478 million. 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 one I just mentioned, 1.4 billion. The total ask 34% funded. Who's funding that? The United States is funding 61%. So it's just to nuance your what you asked specifically because you asked about US funding cuts. Now, of course that has hurt, but 61% of what has been received is also from the United States. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that clarity. Okay, I think, Jamie, you had your hand up. Ap,

thank you very much. Jens partially answered my question. I'm trying to digest it. But my question is for Dr. 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, okay. Could you tell us about the possibility of the herbivo vaccine? Why you specifically mentioned that the clinical trials and what time frame that you expect that we might get some clarity about when that might be available, 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 U.S. issue. So this is the second question you mentioned partners. CDC has indicated that they have sent, I believe it's 30 or 40 people there to Congo. How much are you working with CDC and how much is the sort of, let's say, separation between WHO and the US Government having any impact on whether or not you can work on the ground with CDC experts? And finally for Ms. Archer, you mentioned that IFRC is sending in teams. 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 wha can address that. But could you tell us from your side how many experts, how many teams you're. You're able to contribute?

Thank you.

Okay, over to you, Dr. Ncl.

Yes, yes, thank you. On the, on the vaccine, frankly, I would prefer, I would prefer that we can discuss after the meeting this afternoon because I don't want to say things that are not based on exact science. So, you know, there is a technical advisory group this afternoon and I do think that there will probably be another opportunity for the media 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 that can create havoc and misinformation. So if you allow me, let's wait for the meeting this afternoon. For the time being, I'm on the ground. I'm not in Kinshasa. I know I should be in Kinshasa, but I'm still here because as you said, there is not enough expert 40 that we have deployed. It's what we had, you know, available in the country. We managed to get a plane on Sunday, we managed to get two plane on Sunday. We took the stock that we had in Kinshasa and we brought it all here 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. We are bringing more. We are bringing more. For example, in terms of supply, we had the first plane on Sunday 5 tonnes. Yesterday we did 4.6 tonnes. Today we've got an additional 8 tonne. We are bringing more and more expert as well. We are bringing experts from the drc. But for example, yesterday evening I've been approved mobilization of additional export that are coming from the region and from and from headquarters as well. So no, it's not the end, it's just the beginning. It is. I want to talk what we've got on the field right now, what we managed to get on day three of the response. We've been very fast, but we are just getting it. We've got, for example, the team that is leaving tomorrow from here to go to Butembo because we know that Butembo is a difficult situation as well. We don't understand its extent. So we've got a team that is moving from here and we've got other people from Kichasa that are coming and replacement the people that we're sending in Butembo. So that is just the beginning. For the time being. Africa cdc, US cdc, they're not in the field. We here with that. There is unicef, iom, Medicine, Frontier, Alima, Direct Cross and a few other partners, Samaritan, Purse, who will also be involved. We are here, WFP here is helping with the transport. US cdc, Africa CDC are not in the ground for the time being. But of course there is a coordination that is, that is already organized here and in Kinshasa around the emergency operations center, 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, you've got US cdc, Africa cdc. And I can tell you that on the ground we've been working very, very well with the U.S. government. We understand that we cannot receive the funding. It's okay. But we want to keep talking, 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.

Thank you very much.

I just want to add, because I missed one of the questions, the previous question on the laboratory capacity. So in Bunya, as I said, there is really now a brand new laboratory that is being set up and we have now brought a few diagnostic tests and reagents since Sunday. So since yesterday the laboratory in Bunya is functioning and we are able to confirm. So yesterday we confirmed an additional 30 cases. 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 Mongolo. We will bring a mobile app. We will have a mobile app in Wampara. In Goma. There is a very, very good laboratory. It is the. It was supported by and established by Institut Meriux just at the end of the previous outbreak. It is supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Research and it is good. I have not yet seen it, but when we had the confirmed case of gomma, I asked around, I asked my team on the ground, I called Professor Muyembe 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 experts who have told me 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 contingency fund for emergencies and we put a lot of money for laboratory in there. UK FCDO has given us very, very quickly. One million. I think we were talking to together on Sunday. They say, okay, we release the money. I don't remember if I signed Sunday or Monday. And therefore we are really starting to be able to scale up the early first response. It's not enough. We need much more, but we do what we can with what we have right now. And frankly, once again, I know a lot of additional partners are interested to help us and we are really thanking them deeply and it's together that we will be able to answer to this outbreak alone. We cannot do it. Thank you.

Thank you, doctor. Before, for your follow up. I think Laura wanted to answer this first part of your question.

Yeah, thank you for your question. So the way we work as Red Cross is we really try to have the response as local as possible and we really try to walk that talk. So currently our approach in Congo specifically is we're supporting 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 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'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. 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 tons 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 EPI situation. So thanks, over to you.

Thank you. 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 mobilized. Its mandate is, among other things, things to coordinate with the Congolese authorities, coordinate with partners, to help with the protection of civilians and to obviously provide health security in affected areas. So that is of course important to bear in mind. Jamie, you had a follow up, Go ahead.

Thank you very much, Dr. Ancia. I just have a couple of quick follow ups. The first is, could you tell us the distance between Bunya and the hot spots, 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 Erbivo in French because it was pretty clear from what you said that you sounded like you were saying that it could. Je pas exacte Mesabel herbevo qui pour, if I understood that correctly. Could you please just clarify that for whether or not you actually think that that has promise. Thank you so much.

Go ahead, doctor.

Yes, of course, of course, yes, yes. And first of all, let me tell you that Monesco is here and, and they're helping tremendously. They have given us three ambulance, they are giving us protected cars so that we can go in unsafe area. They have, they have supporting us with a cargo 130 so that we can bring our supplies. So they're fantastic. 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, who's helping me to move in those places. So no, the partnership on the ground is still limited, but it's absolutely fantastic. So the Mongolu is actually at 76km from Bunya. It's more or less three hours by road. The road is not bad, but it's unsecure. It's at the level. It is orange. It's not red. It is orange. So you know, we cannot. There is a curfew we cannot go. We cannot go beyond, I think five o' clock there. I have to remember because the curfew are different in different places here. So yes, Herbevo is one of the potential vaccine that is, that is looked for eventually be able to come and bring additional prevention and protection among the communities here. Yes, it is. But what I know is actually it would take me what I know from who, 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 outbreak because we still don't know the spread. And it's already in two provinces and in two very difficult provinces.

Thank you. We can only hope. Okay, before we go together, I think there's a question. Sir, you had a question in the middle.

Sorry, two questions. One for Ms. Archer. You mentioned Dubai and supplies. Has the trouble in the Strait 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 four 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 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 so good on that. Thanks.

Thank you so much. Okay. Doctor, over to you on the strain.

Yes, so, yes. Okay. In terms of supplies for the time being, our first supplies were already pre positioned in Kinshasa because we know we are prepared. We know that we've got those kind of outbreaks. So our first suppliers are arrived 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 preposition warehouse in Dakar and in Nairobi, it's our regional hub. In terms of the. It is possible, you know, you know, the, the diagnostic differential is a bit, is a bit complicated and the symptoms are fever, myasthenia, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting and then in some cases bleeding. And normally it's bleeding from. It's epistasis mostly. And the bleeding comes after, you know, it doesn't come on day one, it comes on day five. And we have seen, we have not seen those kind of bleeding, the epistaxis or the millena in most of the case. So, yeah, it's possible. But I really do think that the problem was more really that, you know, there has been two outbreak of Ebola Buddh Bunjo, since it is known, it has been discovered in Uganda. So there's been an outbreak in Uganda and an outbreak in, in drc. Drc. They are very much used to the Ebol Azah and as I said in Bunya, they were negative tests for Ebola Zaire and so they said, no, it's not Ebola. And then frankly. But when we arrived, it's really what we did actually, we really started looking at the case definition. So really, what are you seeing? What are the people, what are they suffering? And we work very closely with, with the epidemiological unit to have a very more precise case definition. And then we saw that there were some people with still the bleeding at the later stage of the disease and we said, no, we need to go to the laboratory in Kinshasa, send the samples and really confirm. So it's how it went. It's the same thing. For the time being, we are telling you that we've got 135 suspected deaths, we've got four 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 deaths 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 trying to understand how many deaths we've got, because we don't think that all the 135 are actually coming from the Ebola Buddy Bunjo virus. So we've got a team that is cleaning all those data. It is complicated, but we'll get there. 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 provide a better answer and work better with the communities on trying to disrupt the chain of transmission. So yeah, I'm going to stop there. I can talk for hours but time is limited indeed.

It's a very, very, I mean it's immensely important of course in lots of details. We still have a couple of questions if you can, you can stay with us. Dr. Catherine.

Yes, you did mention the possibility of clinical trials when you spoke in French. So would those be conducted by using the modified Hervebo vaccine? And who would be responsible for giving the green light for these kind of clinical trials?

Thank you.

Okay, maybe it will be a repo 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 Ecuador. So there are research and development studies that are ongoing in this country particularly for Ebola, MPOX and African trypanosomiasis as well. So yeah, there will be clinical trial which molecules, which vaccines. Let's wait for this afternoon to have more information on that. What will be done from who? We've got the, a specific system which is called the early release of. How is the name again? Erul. Sorry, it just escaped my mind but we've got a specific system when we want to release pre qualified molecules that are not fully known and we're doing it, it's based 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 leaving, 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 DRC for years, as we've been using them in Uganda last year when we had the Ebola Sudan. We will use those same mechanisms. But of course those mechanisms, it is the Ministry of Health who is deciding and what we do, what the WHO group of ESPER is doing is providing the best available data on safety and on efficacy of those molecules and it's what will be discussed this afternoon. We're going to look at several molecules and looking at the best safety first. When we know that the safety is there, we will look at the efficacy and then The Ministry of Health and the national authorities will decide whether they want to go or not with clinical trials.

Thank you so much. Tarek, go ahead.

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 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 prioritized for clinical trial. But as Dr. Antsia said, the decision will be made by countries and we will, if when we get some outcome of this technical advisory group meeting, we will communicate. The meeting is today. I don't know what time it will finish and I don't know what time we will have results.

Okay, listen, let's just wrap up very soon 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. So Jamie, you had a follow up, I think.

Yeah, I think I speak for all of us. The earlier you can get the results on the T8, on the tag and on the EC, the better for us. Obviously. Dr. Ancia, you mentioned that. Just going back, 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 two month period. Is there any way based on previous Ebola outbreak dynamics, how long we can expect this to go on for and how many people could potentially be affected? Given the very quick number of suspected cases that we've seen, Is there anybody out there that's projecting how many people could be affected? Thank you.

You, over to you.

Yes, yes, there is work that is.

Sorry, can I go?

Yes, please. Please go ahead.

Yes, yes, there is work that will. That will be ongoing and based mostly with our team that is that is now in Berlin. We will work with them. We have also today actually Imperial College has been contacting us and once or Evangeli to walk with us on this today. There is a lot of infodemics. You know, there was even. There has been a problem with one of the release of who mentioning a positive case in Kinshasa. There is no positive case in Kinshasa. We had cases in Kisangani. It's infirm. So we've got a lot of infodemic right now. And what we have to do is really Being able to confirm where the hotspots are and work on really containing this very early. But we will do, of course those scientific extrapolation and we are starting to do them. But we really, you know, it is so complicated. Like, I don't know, somebody was talking of American bodies or people we swimming in infodemic. It is crazy. I am called all the time for stories that doesn't make sense and we really need 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. Wampara, Mongolu. Mongolu, probably the epicenter, but we still don't have the index case. And then really a movement which is really related to the movement of population. The people are moving between South Kivu and Ituri and so Butembo and then Goma. And we hope, I mean, the extent of the outbreak will depend of the rapidity of our response, the rapidity of, as I said, being able to stop the transmission. But it is because we don't have a vaccine and therefore we need to rely 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 outbreak will be done. Remember the previous one? It took two years.

Thanks. Okay, last questions. Who do I have? John, Christian, Alex, the same question. Okay, so who has a question? Hands up. 1, 2, 3. And we also have Kashmir online. Let's make this quick because the doctor is also joining us from Bunia. So let's start off with John. Go ahead. Yes, My question is to Jens.

Jens. Last Thursday, I think the US government

wrote a check for 1.8 billion for OCHA 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 the DRC outbreak.

As you know, the funds that are managed by OCHA are managed in the pooled fund 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 say that this will certainly be part of their discussions.

Thank you. Who's next? Christian?

Thank you. My question is to Dr. Ansha. What do we know about patient zero? And do we know how the first

person got infected in this outbreak?

Thank you. As I said, I don't think that we have the Patient Zero for now. What we know for now is that on 5th of May there is a person who died in Bunyan. The body was brought Back in Mongolu and the body was put in a coffin. And then the family decided that the coffin was not worse the person and therefore what they did, they changed the coffin. And then there was the funerals. And it's from where it started. That's what we know for sure. But we need to go. We are in Mongolu and we are doing further investigation because once again, I'm hearing a lot of rumors that it spread it earlier. But for the time being, we don't have yet all the epidemiological link to be able to say when this outbreak has what is the patient zero or the index case. Okay, we don't have it yet.

Thank you, doctor. Well noted. Okay, Emma, and then Alexandre, you're okay? You have. Okay, so Emma, and then last question will be online to Kazmira. EMMA, Reuters.

Yeah, Dr. Angio, thanks for sticking with us.

Just.

Just on the answer you gave about

how long it took to get the right tests, could you just clarify

when

you got the right test for this strain, please? Thank you.

The test is available, but the test was available in Kinshasa, it was not available in Bunya. Now we have this test in small quantity available in Bunyan. We brought it on our first plane on Sunday and the laboratory since yesterday is able to do the testing. We're going to bring an additional machine now, Altona, which will enable us to do much, much, much more tests by the hours. And as I said, we will bring also mobile lab in Juanpaha and in Mongole. Yesterday evening, in our debriefing meeting, we were talking as well of bringing a lab in Butembo and in Goma. There is an excellent lab over there as well. But what we are doing at who we are now really buying and mobilizing additional reagent and additional everything that we need. The sample transportation kit, it's very specific. We need to put those samples in a triple package. Very, very specific. Because sometimes they have to go in planes. So we've got measures that are agreed upon by who, by iaea to be able to make sure that when we transport those samples, we do it with all the safety measure necessary. So we are bringing all those equipment now closer to the response in Bunya and then in the two hotspots. But for the time being, what is available in the country is very, very, very limited. And it's one of the areas where we need additional support.

Thank you very much, Dr. Kasmira online.

Sorry. Thank you very much for taking my question and for the briefing today, for all the information You've given us 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 depending on the day that you're treating the person and. Yeah, thank you.

Okay, I'm looking at my note from yesterday evening. So Yesterday we did 30 confirmed test and the lab expert, I took note of it so I'm trying to find it there. But when we've got the Altona, I think she was saying that we would be able. Oh, here we go with the Altona. So what we've got for the time being we are able to do six 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 test PER. PER. Per hour. And, and what is your second question? Excuse me?

The second question, Kazmira. Sorry, I missed it myself. What was it? The survival rate? Survival rate.

Okay, survival rate. So. So what we know for the time being is we're looking at the two previous outbreaks. The outbreak in Uganda had a lethality between between 40 and 50% because actually there was also a lot of cases that were never, that were 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 Ebola virus, the Bundibunto, is a little bit less virulent than the desired one. So we'll see what Professor Muyembe said to the press yesterday. I didn't talk to him about it, but he mentioned actually that this Boudibud virus subtypes is not coming. 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 initiated the first outbreak 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.

Okay, thank you Dr. Antja and colleagues, lots of information and I have a feeling there'll be lots more to come. Did you have a question? No, you're okay.

Just everyone wants to have a very quick question. I just wanted to thank you Dr. Antia for coming. All the questions that we're asking testified 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 detecting the outbreak?

Normally, the provincial health authorities. Yeah. So we've been training them and we have in place what we call the rapid response team. So when there is an alert, 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 mobilization, if the alert is really likely to be an outbreak. So actually there has been one of those team, mostly from national experts going in Mongualu. But as I said, we will have to understand better what went wrong there. It's very interesting. Before coming to Bunya, I was not coming for that. I was coming because I just arrived in DRC and I wanted to go and visit Ituri because of its specificity, this movement of population, the communal fighting. And really I knew that it was 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 support that we are providing to the provincial authorities and to the national authorities is really adapted. I don't want to do cookie cutting. It's not my way of working. So I really wanted to understand the situation. Those many displaced camp where there is no aid anymore that is provided and very different area with attacks from many, many different militias here and different ethnicities in this province. So I came for that. And then as we met 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 wake up, I open my emails and the first thing that I read is the alerts all over the country. So I've got a team that is doing that, looking at social media and so on. And we had two alerts in Ituri in this province, and two were zoonotic disease. One was an increased number of pork that are dying. And we are actually looking if there is a link right now. So this is an investigation that was ongoing and another one which was about increased diarrhea. But we didn't have that alert. So it didn't go as I said, the outbreak has been rampant for four days. You have to understand that the movement of population here is unclear. It is related to also mining business and so on. So there is a lot of things that are happening silently.

Absolutely. Well, Doctor, your presence there is immensely important. 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 UNHCR to OCHA and of course the who Larger. 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 thanks again for all the important work you're doing.

Thank you.

Okay, 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. Thank you. 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. Just wanted to make sure you're aware of a 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. PAN 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 Board's coordination meeting known as the ceb. What else do I have for you? Yes, meetings. We have, as I mentioned already, the Human Rights Council's Working Group on the right to Development kicked off its meeting yesterday, 18 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 4pm 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 at desa, 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 sphere. There will be a nice event taking place this Thursday at 4pm 21 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 Ifcovitz. There will be refreshments, there'll 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 directed in 1939, when it was first installed, and it'll spin again. So if you're free, please join us on Thursday at 4pm outside in the park. That is it for me. Any questions? No? Okay, then. Have a good afternoon and see you here on Friday. Thanks.