The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday opened a meeting of global health ministers amid concern over deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks.

While the rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that has gripped global attention is not officially on the agenda, it is expected to feature prominently in discussions, alongside the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The two outbreaks "are just the latest crises in our troubled world", WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of the UN agency's annual decision-making World Health Assembly.

"From conflicts to economic crises to climate change and aid cuts, we live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times."

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said the global health challenges "have rarely felt more daunting".

"Over the past year, cuts to bilateral and multilateral aid have disrupted health systems and widened inequalities," Guterres said in a video address to the assembly.

The meeting runs through Saturday.

The WHO on Sunday declared the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern because of the high risk the disease could spread further beyond DRC's borders after two cases were confirmed in Kampala, the capital of neighbouring Uganda.

The outbreak is suspected to have killed around 80 people in recent weeks, with eight cases confirmed by laboratory testing and 246 suspected cases reported in eastern DRC's Ituri province.

Another case was confirmed in neighbouring North Kivu province's capital, Goma, according to the M23 rebels who control the city.

A delegation led by DRC Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba arrived in Ituri's capital Bunia on Sunday with tents to set up three treatment centres to support strained local hospitals.

"We know that the hospitals are already under stress because of the patients," Kamba said.

"But we are preparing to have treatment centres at all three sites in order to be able to expand our capabilities.”

WHO's representative in DRC, Anne Ancia, said WHO had emptied its stocks of protective equipment in the capital Kinshasa and was now preparing a cargo plane to bring additional supplies from a depot in Kenya.

The International Rescue Committee and Medecins Sans Frontieres aid groups said on Monday they had teams responding to the outbreak. (Agencies)



Edited by Edmond Fong