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DRC Health Minister Resigns After Being Dismissed as Head of Ebola Response

VOA News

   The Democratic Republic of Congo's health minister resigned Monday
   after he was dismissed as head of the team tackling a persistent Ebola
   outbreak.

   Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak in
   eastern Congo to be an international health emergency.

     BREAKING NEWS: The [1]#Ebola outbreak in [2]#DRC constitutes a
     public health emergency of international concern, citing concerning
     geographical expansion of the virus: WHO Director-General,
     [3]@DrTedros following the IHR Emergency Committee's recommendation
     [4]#alert
     -- World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) [5]July 17, 2019

   As of July 20, 1,643 people have died, among 2,484 confirmed cases of
   Ebola, a [6]fatality rate of about 66 percent.

   DRC President Felix Tshisekedi announced Oly Ilunga's dismissal
   Saturday, when the former health official said he was out of the
   country. A new task force which will report directly to the president
   will take over.

   Illunga's resignation letter, which he released on Twitter, said the
   move could jeopardize efficiency, stability and consistency in the
   DRC's response to Ebola.

     Suite à la décision de la [7]@Presidence_RDC de gérer à son
     niveau l'épidémie d'[8]#Ebola, j'ai remis ma démission en tant
     que Ministre de la Santé ce lundi. Ce fut un honneur de pouvoir
     mettre mon expertise au service de notre Nation pendant ces 2
     années importantes de notre Histoire. [9]pic.twitter.com/qEDAPkxR0B
     -- Dr. Oly Ilunga (@OlyIlunga) [10]July 22, 2019

   He said another flashpoint was outside pressure to introduce a new
   experimental vaccine. The country has deployed hundreds of thousands of
   doses of a vaccine by Merck, a German pharmaceutical company. The World
   Health Organization (WHO) and others have encouraged the DRC to use
   another vaccine by Johnson & Johnson, an American company.

   Both vaccines, and three others, are experimental.

   At least 143,000 people have received the Merck vaccine during the
   current outbreak, which began a year ago. Though Merck has about
   250,000 more full doses available, Bloomberg reported, the supply
   within the DRC is sporadic and stocks are typically 1,000 doses short.

References

   1. https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ebola?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   2. https://twitter.com/hashtag/DRC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   3. https://twitter.com/DrTedros?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   4. https://twitter.com/hashtag/alert?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   5. https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1151548791021015040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   6. https://www.who.int/ebola/situation-reports/drc-2018/en/
   7. https://twitter.com/Presidence_RDC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   8. https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ebola?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   9. https://t.co/qEDAPkxR0B
  10. https://twitter.com/OlyIlunga/status/1153295778275909634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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