Ebola in DR Congo: Disavowed by President Tshisekedi, Minister of Health resigns

He feels disavowed. The Congolese Minister of Health, Dr. Oly Ilunga, announced Monday, July 22, that he resigned after President Felix Tshisekedi's decision to take control of the crisis management of the epidemic. Ebola and introduce a new vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Strong pressure has been exerted for several months for the implementation of a new experiment in DR Congo," wrote the Minister of Health in his resignation letter. "The only vaccine to be used in this outbreak is the vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV manufactured by the pharmaceutical group Merck," said Monday the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Health, indicating that 169,976 people were vaccinated.

Following the decision of the @Presidence_RDC to manage at its level the epidemic of # Ebola, I resigned my post as Minister of Health on Monday. It was an honor to be able to put my expertise at the service of our Nation during these two important years of our History. pic.twitter.com/qEDAPkxR0B

"It would be unrealistic to believe that the new vaccine (two doses administered 56 days apart), proposed by actors who have demonstrated a manifest lack of ethics by voluntarily hiding important information from the health authorities, can have a decisive impact on the control of the ongoing epidemic, "added the minister.

The risk of "creating confusion"

This decision also follows the appointment of a team of experts, including the director of the Congolese Institute for Biomedical Research to ensure the "conduct" of the Ebola epidemic response in Congo under his "supervision". ". "As a result of your decision to place the response to the Ebola outbreak under your direct supervision and anticipating the prejudicial cacophony of response that will inevitably result from this decision, I hereby submit my resignation of my duties as Minister of Health ", also wrote Oly Ilunga

"As in any war, because that is what it is about in this fight, there can not be several centers of decision at the risk of creating confusion (...) The uniqueness in the management of Such a response responds to the triple imperative of effectiveness, coherence of decisions and accountability, "said Dr. Ilunga.

"The current Ebola crisis is not a humanitarian crisis, it is a public health crisis that is taking place in an environment characterized by security problems," he further explained, denouncing "pressure from all of which tend to turn it into a humanitarian crisis whose logics of intervention devote the establishment of a parallel system that never strengthens the existing health system ".

The tenth outbreak of haemorrhagic fever, reported on 1 August, killed 1,737 people, mostly in the eastern Beni and Butembo region, according to the latest Health Ministry bulletin Sunday. WHO decided on 18 July to elevate the current epidemic to a "public health emergency of international concern".

With AFP