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The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that officials had begun vaccinating people in eastern Congo against Ebola after confirming that the disease had caused the death of a toddler.
The United Nations health agency said in a statement that people at high risk of contracting the disease, including the family of young boys and health workers, will receive the first dose of the vaccine produced by Merck.
WHO said that about a thousand doses of the vaccine arrived in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in Congo, and 200 doses were sent to Beni, a city near the area where the first case was detected last week.
The new Ebola outbreak that began on October 8 came after a devastating epidemic that began in 2018, when the disease killed more than 2,200 people in this conflict-torn area-and more than 80 WHO were found Organizing responders sexually abused people during their work in the agency. Try to stop this disease.
The agency stated that one of the 15 WHO officials sent to Congo this month is an expert in preventing sexual abuse and exploitation.
“Experts will explain to WHO staff and partners how to prevent any improper and abuse,” WHO said.
An Associated Press investigation in May found that senior WHO management was notified of multiple incidents of sexual abuse but did not take action. The accused included a doctor who offered female jobs in the vaccination team in exchange for sex.
The Associated Press also found that WHO managers signed a contract to pay for a woman who was allegedly pregnant by a WHO doctor. The details were confirmed in a report released last month. The report was reviewed by a team during the earlier Ebola response to sexual abuse.
The team found more than 80 WHO responders sexually abused people in the Congo and described the basic structure and cultural issues of the agency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros said that although he had visited Congo 14 times during the outbreak and was personally responsible for overseeing the response measures, he did not understand the claims of sexual abuse before the media released it.
Many countries and donors have since pressured WHO to overhaul its emergency response system and punish staff involved in the abuse; no senior management staff has since been dismissed, and an official who learned of the abuse in writing later Be promoted.
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