Ten African countries are at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, the African Union's health agency has warned.
"We have 10 countries at risk," said Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Saturday, listing Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
Except for Ethiopia, all the listed countries facing the risk are bordering the DRC or Uganda, which have recorded Ebola cases so far.
The Africa CDC and World Health Organisation (WHO) also announced a funding appeal for over $314 million to finance response interventions.
The bulk of the budget is intended for DRC and Uganda for treatment, surveillance, and prevention of the epidemic, while the other 10 high-risk countries would share $54 million.
Interventions highlighted include the establishment of national incident management systems and cross-border coordination in regional countries, acceleration of research on vaccines specific to the Bundibugyo strain, deployment of additional teams, and the pre-positioning of emergency stocks before the transmission accelerates.
The DRC has witnessed a spike in Ebola cases since an outbreak was declared on May 15 in the Ituri province.
The disease has spread to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.
About 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been reported, according to the WHO.
At least 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in DRC.
Three new cases were announced in Uganda on Saturday, bringing to five the total confirmed cases since the current outbreak, according to the Health Ministry.
DRC authorities have suspended social activities in Ituri, the epicentre of the outbreak, including sports, to prevent the spread.
Gen. Johnny Luboya, the military governor, in a statement, also banned gatherings of more than 50 people throughout Bunia, Rwampara, Mungwalu and Nyakunde health zones affected by surging cases of Ebola.
The WHO has raised the alert level to “very high", and several neighbouring countries have intensified preventive measures to prevent the virus from spreading, including restricting travel from DRC.
