Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme: Ebola outbreak in Ituri, Congo "a perfect storm."

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, spent several weeks in the hot zone in eastern Congo, mobilizing the international response to the late-discovered Ebola outbreak. Establishing community trust and confidence is the single most urgent challenge across all activities. At the six-week point, the response is scaling. However, "We have to be humble." "We are nowhere yet where we want to be." There is now a high-level UN figure in eastern Congo charged with addressing the complex security challenges. The absence of advanced US technical expertise in the deliberations and response, following the US withdrawal from WHO, is "strange." "Everyone pays a price."