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 FILE – A man receives a vaccine against Ebola from a nurse outside the Afia Himbi Health Center in Goma, July 15, 2019.Another vaccine could help stop the spread of the virus, but health officials including Ilunga have resisted. They say introducing another vaccine could stoke fears within a populace historically suspicious of vaccines. The Johnson vaccine also requires two shots two months apart, which is difficult to administer as people flee.It’s unclear if the new task force will change the DRC’s position on the second vaccine.Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, director of the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, will lead the new Ebola task force. Tamfum was part of the team that investigated the first known Ebola outbreak in 1977, and was the first scientist to make contact with the disease and survive.The ongoing outbreak is the second-deadliest on record, following one in West Africa during 2014 and 2015 that killed more than 11,000 people.
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