The governor of a disease-ravaged province in the Democratic Republic of Congo has issued a stark warning that the current Ebola outbreak poses a direct threat to global health and requires an immediate, UK-led international response. Speaking from Kinshasa, Dr. Jean-Pierre Kambila, governor of North Kivu, told reporters that without urgent action, the virus could spiral into a pandemic that overwhelms fragile health systems worldwide.
“We are facing a catastrophe,” Kambila said. “The international community, led by Britain with its world-class public health infrastructure, must step up now. Delays cost lives.” His plea comes as the World Health Organisation reports 112 confirmed cases and 72 deaths in the latest surge, concentrated in densely populated urban areas near the Rwandan border.
For the people of Goma, a city of nearly two million, the outbreak is a daily reality that threatens their livelihoods. market trader Chantal Mwisha, 42, told me she has lost three customers this week to the virus. “I am afraid to go to work, but if I don’t, my children do not eat. We need help, real help, not promises.” Her words echo a deeper anxiety that the cost of inaction will be borne by the poorest.
Britain, with its expertise from the 2014 West Africa response and its network of laboratories, is uniquely placed to coordinate a rapid containment. But experts warn that budget cuts to the Foreign Office and NHS overseas aid programmes have left the country’s ability to respond stretched. Dr. Paul Garner, a leading epidemiologist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: “We have the knowledge and the will, but we have starved the systems that deliver it. This is a test of our values as much as our science.”
The governor’s call echoes a growing frustration among African leaders that wealthy nations treat outbreaks as distant problems until they arrive on their own shores. “Ebola does not need a visa,” Kambila said. “It will find its way to London, to Paris, to New York, unless we stop it here.”
For now, the UK government has donated £20 million and deployed a small team of public health advisers. But unions representing NHS workers say more is needed. “Our members are ready to go, but they need proper funding, protective equipment, and support,” said Sara Gorton, head of health at UNISON. “The government cannot cut corners when lives are at stake.”
As the sun set over Goma’s dusty streets, Mwisha packed up her stall, her eyes scanning the crowd for signs of fever. She knows that the world’s attention will eventually shift elsewhere. But for her, and for millions like her, the threat is not a headline. It is a daily fight for survival.
The question for Britain is whether we will act in time, not just with charity, but with the sustained commitment that this crisis demands. The governor’s warning is clear: the price of delay is measured in bodies, and it is a bill that will come due for us all.
