H5N1

Mouzoko case: Doctors will not go on strike next Monday

Via Topcongofm.net: Butembo: doctors will not go on strike next Monday.

The decision to postpone the dry strike of protest and solidarity, initially scheduled for Monday [August 12], was taken this Saturday, August 10, at the end of a meeting of the "Butembo cell"  of the national council of the order of doctors.  

The doctors of this territory of the North Kivu province say they want to give a chance to the negotiations carried out to obtain the lightening of conditions of detention of their colleagues, accused of being involved in the assassination last April, of an epidemiologist World Health Organization (WHO) from Cameroon in a militia attack on an Ebola team. 

"We ask that they be under house arrest. We still have the weekend to continue the negotiations," Kalima Nzanu, president of the Butembo Cell of the National Council of the Medical Association , told TOP CONGO. 

Only "if Monday, August 12, they [arrested doctors] are not released on bail and the public hearing is not scheduled, we will start a strike excluding first all outpatient consultations. We will only take in-patients and those who come in emergency," he warned.  

A clear way for Butembo's white coats to escalate pressure on civilian authorities and military justice who, moreover,  "showed a positive attitude,"  suggests Dr. Kalima. "We hope that by this [Saturday] evening or even tomorrow [Sunday], our colleagues will be under house arrest at home," he continues.  

A total of 52 people are arrested in connection with this case. The defendants include 24 suspected Mai-Mai fighters and four Congolese doctors. 3 of them are presumed sponsors and moral authors of this murder, another suspect is on the run and actively sought by the military justice.  

It is besides the military justice which announced to have completed, Thursday August 8th, its investigation of four months which would allow it to understand the circumstances of the fatal attack, on April 19th, of the clinics of the Catholic University of Graben in Butembo. 

It was during this incursion that the Cameroonian doctor Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, coordinator of the response to the Ebola virus epidemic in the health area of ​​Mutsanga, was killed while chairing a meeting with members of his team.

Killing of WHO epidemiologist in Butembo: MP accuses investigators of demanding up to US $ 5,000 for those arrested for their release

Thanks to Augustín Benito for alerting me to this August 6 report, which I'd missed, in Actualite.cd: Killing of WHO Epidemiologist in Butembo: MP accuses investigators of demanding up to US $ 5,000 for those arrested for their release. The Mouzoko Affair grows ever more complex. The Google translation:

The national deputy Tembos Yotama denounced this Tuesday, August 6, 2019 "harassment" in the investigation into the assassination of Dr. Richard Mouzoko, epidemiologist of the World Health Organization (WHO) killed last April by militiamen, then that he was involved in the Ebola response in Butembo town. 

In an interview with ACTUALITE.CD, this Butembo elected accuses investigating officers of the Operational Military Court of North Kivu, "wanting to get rich behind the case, arresting innocent people and conditioning their release by the payment of exorbitant sums of money. 

"Investigations in the case of the murder of Dr. Mouzoko, became a business. Twenty innocents, including three local doctors, are now arrested. And the investigators condition their release by the payment of exorbitant amounts of money, which vary from 3 000 to 5 000 US dollars according to the identity of defendant. I have just returned from the parliamentary holidays of Butembo, several relatives of the victims came to see me and to ask for my implication. People to whom the investigators ask, by intermediaries, exorbitant sums. I even exchanged with the relatives of an innocent victim who had to pay $3,500 for his release. It exaggerates. Instead of searching for the truth, people make inquiries a business.

He pointed out that for the time being, the arrested persons, including three doctors, were languishing in prison, some in Bunia, where they had been transferred, and others in Beni and Butembo. The Butembo representative demands the involvement of the military hierarchy, for the urgent holding of a public trial in Butembo, in order to "condemn the real perpetrators and release innocent citizens". 

"In principle, this trial was a flagrant case because suspects were immediately arrested. An urgent trial was needed for the truth to be known. But now, four months later, nothing is done. We are seeking the involvement of Kinshasa authorities in holding a trial in Butembo. Otherwise, there is still a risk of making work difficult for friends involved in the response to Ebola, by provoking resistance, especially in the heads of disaffected residents to see their loved ones suffer innocently in prison," he warns.  

The Cameroonian doctor Richard Mouzoko was shot dead by militiamen while he was chairing a meeting of the "active research" committee of the local coordination of fight against the Ebola virus disease, in the walls of the medical clinic of the Catholic University of Graben (UCG) of Butembo. 

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Operational Military Court of North Kivu announced the arrest of the suspects and promised the "immediate" holding of a public trial. But four months later nothing was done.  

In an August 7 Actualite.cd report, the investigating magistrate, Col. Kumbu Ngoma Marcel, denies the charges, saying that at this point, those charged can't be freed on bail. 

DRC Ebola: Citizen movement accuses some agents of wanting to get rich with funds allocated to the response

Via 7sur7.cd: DRC-Ebola: Citizen movement accuses some agents of wanting to get rich with funds allocated to the response. Excerpt from the Google translation:

Governors of North Kivu and Ituri Provinces are called to regularly monitor how funds allocated to the Ebola response are being managed and to accompany the new response team appointed by the Head of State Felix Tshisekedi, "in its desire to stop the spread of this epidemic". 

This call was launched by the citizen movement, Synergy Young Leaders "SJL-DRC", in a statement issued Wednesday, August 7 in Goma (North Kivu).  

The youth in this movement recommended to the governors of two provinces affected by Ebola:  

- To accompany the new response team by controlling the management of the funds allocated for this purpose and report to the President of the Republic; 

- Take tough measures against all agents working in the response and doing their job lightly; 

- To control NGOs engaged in the response.  

These young people believe that there is a certain "lack of sense of patriotism among some agents working in the response" by making the fight against Ebola an "easy way to get rich".

The Muyembe team and its new approach inspire a victory over Ebola (Governor South Kivu)

Via Topcongofm.net: The Muyembe team and its new approach inspire a victory over Ebola (Governor South Kivu). The Google translation:

"With Prof. Muyembe, new coordinator of the Ebola Control Committee, we reviewed the preventive response against this epidemic that is threatening South Kivu. With the new approach showing that the fight against Ebola is a matter for everyone, we hope to win," responded Thursday, July 25, Theo Kasi, governor of this province. 

After the resignation of Minister Oly Ilunga, which triggered a debate on its involvement in the misappropriation of funds allocated to priority activities in the health sector, a thesis refuted systematically by the Ministry through tweets and tweets, La Lucha calls on the Presidency of the Republic for more transparency in the management of the Ebola crisis, launched in August 2018 in the east of the country. 

"North Kivu and Ituri should not be used as laboratories for testing an Ebola vaccine set up by unscrupulous pharmaceutical multinationals, and Congolese as human guinea pigs," reacts in a tweet the citizen movement. 

Support to the response 

On Wednesday, July 24, a World Bank announcement announced US $ 300 million in funding, donated by this institution and credits, to support the fight against Ebola virus disease in the DRC.  

This mobilization from the World Bank stems from the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration that Ebola is a public health emergency of international concern. 

This US $ 300 million represents about half of the financing needs of the fourth strategic plan, and will have to cover the health zones of the Congolese territory affected by the disease since its outbreak in August 2018. 

Such mobilization will enable the Congolese government and its partners (Unicef, WHO, WFP and IOM) to strengthen their interventions.

DR Congo draws up a new battle plan against Ebola amid power struggle

Via The New York Times, a highly informative article: Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle. Excerpt:

Faced with an Ebola outbreak that sprawls over a vast swath of the Democratic Republic of Congo, public health officials are conceding that their battle against the virus is failing and have proposed a comprehensive new strategy for ending the epidemic. 

The plan envisions reframing the epidemic as a regional humanitarian crisis, not simply a health emergency. That may include more troops or police to quell the murders and arson that have made medical work difficult, and food aid to win over skeptical locals. And Congo will deploy a second vaccine to form a protective “curtain” of immunity around outbreak areas.  

The outbreak, which began almost exactly a year ago and was declared a global health emergency this month, is now the second-biggest in history, with more than 2,600 cases and more than 1,750 dead. The outbreak has persisted in part because of a fierce but hidden power struggle for control of the response inside Congo, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with Ebola experts. 

The country’s health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, resigned on Monday after a public dispute with donors at a World Health Organization meeting over whether to roll out the second vaccine, which he opposed. The effort to contain the outbreak will no longer be overseen by the country’s health ministry but by an expert committee reporting directly to Congo’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi.

Dr. Ilunga was the target of a scathing internal government report produced in April, just as new cases began soaring above 100 per week. The report was written by a commission convened by Congo’s new president, some of whose members are now overseeing the response.  

The report said “arrogant” national health officials took “an aggressive and ostentatious attitude” when they visited the outbreak area, renting deluxe hotel rooms and expensive cars and “brandishing large dollar bills” while local health workers went unpaid. 

A spokeswoman for Dr. Ilunga called the report “weak.” She said he had resigned not because of it, but because the president had split the authority to oversee the outbreak response between his office and an independent commission, which she claimed was a violation of the Congolese Constitution.

Dr. Ilunga’s departure pleased some donors and agencies supporting the fight against Ebola. The United States is by far the biggest donor. Tibor P. Nagy, the State Department’s top official for African affairs, told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that Dr. Ilunga’s resignation “may be an improvement to the situation.”  

The country is seeking $288 million to implement its new Ebola strategy, and is likely to get it. The World Bank recently offered $300 million, and the United States increased its previous giving by $38 million this week.  

The new plan may include a campaign to win the hearts of the area’s traumatized population by vaccinating against other diseases, offering hot meals and bulk food, deworming schoolchildren, and even creating thousands of jobs.  

International assistance efforts will no longer be directed solely by the W.H.O. and its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, but by David Gressly, a former head of U.N. peacekeeping troops in Congo who was recently given charge of the entire U.N. response.

The strategy also envisions greater efforts to win the support of local officials, chiefs and religious leaders in the isolated eastern provinces, to negotiate a truce with armed groups, and to persuade people to accept vaccines and go to treatment centers. 

Some 500,000 doses of a new Johnson & Johnson vaccine against Ebola will be introduced, and it will be used differently from the current vaccine, made by Merck. While Merck’s single-dose vaccine is used to “ring-vaccinate” everyone around each known case, the new vaccine — which requires two doses given two months apart — will be deployed in areas farther away.

DRC Ebola: Ministry of Health denounces Dr. Oly Ilunga's demonization

Via Topcongofm.net: Ministry of Health denounces Dr. Oly Ilunga's demonization. The Google translation:

In a document entitled "Clarification of the Ministry of Health on Correspondence Global Fund"  and broadcast this Thursday, July 25 via his Twitter account, denouncing a campaign against the person of the outgoing Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga, according to which the latter would be responsible or involved in embezzlement related to the management of the Ebola crisis in the east of the country, the press team of the minister regrets that "the instigators of this disinformation campaign did not understand the content of this correspondence."

Through this clarification, this team states that, in correspondence with the Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga dated July 16 and to which the former member of the government had already responded, since July 20,  "the Global Fund reminded the Ministry that it needs to be informed as soon as possible the information on the amounts paid by the Government in the health sector for the year 2018, failing which some funding planned for the period 2017-2019 could be embarrassed."

"Global Fund financing to recipient countries is conditioned by so-called matching funds. In order to ensure national ownership of the fight against the three pandemics [AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria], the Global Fund requests that the recipient country invest, on own funds, a certain percentage of the amount donated by the Global Fund in actions in the health sector. The counterpart funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo amount to 5% of the funding provided by the Global Fund,"  says the note of clarification.  

These matching funds, argues the ministry's press team, "do not constitute money given to the Cabinet of the Minister of Health by the Ministry of Finance."  

The team emphasizes that  "the Global Fund requires the Government to present its investments in health sector funds on an annual basis".  

"This work requires that the different programs of the Ministry of Health concerned, under the coordination of the General Secretariat, as well as the departments of the budget and finance ministries gather the elements to be sent to the Global Fund," the document says.  

If the country meets its commitments and proves to have invested the amount requested in the health sector for the past year, continues the clarification of the Ministry, "the Global Fund can then increase its annual allocation for the following year. This also explains the country's commitment to increase matching funds to invest in the health sector."  

This clarification follows the sharing, on social networks, of a letter from the Global Fund shortly after the resignation of Minister Oly Ilunga from his position in the Congolese Government. 

Based on the letter from the Global Fund, several people blamed the former health minister for being involved in embezzlement of funds allocated to the management of the Ebola virus disease, declared in the east of the country in August 2018.

MSF: DRC Ebola outbreak crisis update

MSF.org has published DRC Ebola outbreak crisis update. Apart from offering a good current summary, it also provides background. Excerpt and then a comment:

Retrospective investigations point to a possible start of the outbreak back in May 2018 – around the same time as the Equateur outbreak earlier in the year. There is no connection or link between the two outbreaks. 

The delay in the alert and subsequent response can be attributed to several factors, including a breakdown of the surveillance system due to the security context (there are limitations on movement, and access is difficult), and a strike by the health workers of the area which began in May, due to non-payment of salaries.  

A person died at home after presenting symptoms of haemorrhagic fever. Family members of that person developed the same symptoms and also died.  A joint Ministry of Health/World Health Organization (WHO) investigation on site found six more suspect cases, of which four tested positive. This result led to the declaration of the outbreak. 

The national laboratory (INRB) confirmed on 7 August that the current outbreak is of the Zaire Ebola virus, the most deadly strain and the same one that affected West Africa during the 2014-2016 outbreak. Zaire Ebola was also the virus found in the outbreak in Equateur province, in western DRC earlier in 2018, although a different strain than the one affecting the current outbreak.  

First declared in Mangina, a small town of 40,000 people, the epicentre of the outbreak appeared to progressively move towards the south, first to the larger city of Beni, with approximately 400,000 people and the administrative centre of the region. 

As population movements are very common, the epidemic continued south to the bigger city of Butembo, a trading hub. Nearby Katwa became a new hotspot near the end of 2018 and cases had been found further south, in the Kanya area. Meanwhile, sporadic cases also appeared in the neighbouring Ituri province to the north. 

Overall, the geographic spread of the epidemic appears to be unpredictable, with scattered small clusters potentially occurring anywhere in the region. This pattern, along with the lack of visibility on the epidemiological situation, is both extremely worrying and makes ending the outbreak even more challenging.

It happens again and again: poor countries' governments don't pay their healthcare workers enough, or at all. They don't give them adequate training or supplies even to handle routine healthcare needs, and the idea of surveillance never crosses their mind.

Whether the reasons for stiffing HCWs are corruption or incompetence or policy, the effect is the same, and very predictable: people get sick and die. And then the governments discover that people don't like or trust them, and neither do their healthcare workers.

Butembo: Nurses threaten to go on strike to demand their risk premiums and safety

Via Actualite.cd: Butembo: Nurses threaten to go on strike to demand their risk premiums and safety. Excerpt and then a comment:

Nurses members of the Intersyndicale Nurses of Butembo (North Kivu) threaten to go on strike to claim the payment of their risk premiums.

"We condemn the marginalization of health professionals other than doctors and dentists in Butembo. There we are talking about nurses, laboratory technicians and midwives who are abandoned. Our secretaries-general have just launched (in Kinshasa) the supervisory authorities with a seven-day ultimatum so that the question of our risk premiums can be settled. Otherwise we will start a movement of dry strike, we will observe days "hospitals without nurses,",warned Mr. Kambale Vake Okelo, president of the Intersyndicale of the nurses, of Butembo, revealing to the press the resolutions of the GA. 

The followers of Florence denounce the non-payment of their risk premiums, while they work this last time in "difficult" conditions. 

"The members (of Intersyndicale, editor's note) are sorry to note that despite the recommendations and suggestions made in our memorandum (addressed to the authorities), the question seems not to attract their attention. We will see the urban authority, and in case of unsatisfaction, we will trigger a dry strike," denounces Mr. Kambale Vake Okelo. 

Preventive activities remain suspended In addition to not paying their risk premiums, the nurses have also lashed out at attacks and violence that they continue to suffer as a result of their involvement in the response to the Ebola virus disease that has already hundreds of deaths. Thus, they decided to continue the suspension of prevention activities, including prenatal consultation (CPN), preschool consultation (CPS) and routine vaccinations, as it has been for nearly three months now in the city. of Butembo.  

"The Mayor (of Butembo, Editor's note) has requested that a minimum service of CPN, CPS and routine vaccinations be organized. But we are not going to start them, especially since the inhabitants who claim them are the same ones who continue to keep the malicious people who threaten us. Today, some nursing staff no longer sleep at home, they no longer arrive at their health centers, fearing for their safety. Some refrigerators (which allow the conservation of vaccines, Ed) have been damaged, burned health centers: where will we hold the CPN sessions, CPS or vaccination? Where will we find the inputs we use during the vaccination? We are therefore maintaining the suspension of prevention activities while waiting for the urban authority to convene an exchange framework to establish responsibilities," says Kambale Vake Okelo.  

Note that following this measure of nurses to suspend prevention activities, nearly 2,500 children born since March have not yet been vaccinated against measles, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and many other diseases in the city. of Butembo. 

Last Monday, June 27, fearing for the health of their children, more than a dozen breastfeeding women went to protest at the town hall of Butembo to claim the vaccine. 

"We demand the vaccine for our children. We come from Matanda Hospital; We have been told that the vaccine is available but we will not have it because our husbands are bandits and they are the ones who are attacking nurses and destroying health facilities. So we ask the mayor to intervene so that our children are vaccinated," said one of them to the press, indicating that there are already "some children who suffer from cough for lack of vaccine."  

More than two weeks ago, the women went to discuss the same issue with the urban authority, but without success. The nurses recommend that the authority organize a social dialogue with the communities to establish the responsibilities, in order to contain the resistance as well as the armed attacks against their colleagues.

It looks like a default response: when an outbreak hits a poor country, the government stops paying the people who are fighting it. If foreign money pours in, it seems rarely to reach the people who are earning it. That may be tough on the patients and their caregivers, but somebody in a suit is always thinking about that retirement villa in the south of France.

DRC Ebola: 6 new cases, 6 deaths, 3 recoveries

The Ministry of Health has published EBOLA DRC - Evolution of the response to the Ebola outbreak in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri on Tuesday, May 28, 2019. The daily numbers are much lower, but the weekly table shows 88 cases and 57 deaths—25 of them in the community. Excerpt from the Google translation:

EVOLUTION OF THE EBOLA EPIDEMIC  IN THE PROVINCES OF NORTH KIVU AND ITURI 

Tuesday, May 28, 2019 

The epidemiological situation of the Ebola Virus Disease  dated May 27, 2019: 

• Since the beginning of the epidemic, the cumulative number of cases is 1,926, 1,832 confirmed and 94 probable. In total, there were 1,287 deaths (1,193 confirmed and 94 probable) and 503 people healed. 

• 383 suspected cases under investigation; 

• 6 new confirmed cases, including 2 in Katwa, 2 in Butembo and 2 Mabalako; 

• 6 new deaths of confirmed cases, including  

º 1 community death in Katwa; 

º 5 deaths at CTE, including 3 in Butembo and 2 in Mabalako;  

• 3 new healings from the CTE, 2 in Katwa and 1 in Butembo. 

/! \  The data presented in this table are subject to change later, after extensive investigations and after redistribution of cases and deaths in their health areas.

WEEKLY SUMMARY OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA  

Week 21 (May 20-26, 2019)   

For the week from May 20 to May 26, 2019, we recorded:  

• 2,056 suspected cases investigated and tested in the laboratory 

• 88 new confirmed cases  

º The main outbreaks of the epidemic are Mabalako, Butembo and Katwa.  

• 6 new probable cases validated (the 3 probable cases of Masereka had been erroneously reported to Butembo) 

• 57 deaths of confirmed cases 

º Of the 57 deaths, 25 were community deaths, or 43.9%, and 32 occurred in an ETC. 

• 16 new healed people came out of ETCs

OPERATIONS OF THE RESPONSE

Diplomatic visit to Butembo

• Swedish Ambassador in the DRC Maria Håkansson and British Foreign Minister Harriett Baldwin visited Ebola response teams in Butembo on Monday, May 27, 2019. After the courtesy of the mayor of the city , the two hosts visited different sites of the Ebola response, starting with a vaccination site. They also visited the CTE and the CTE nursery in Butembo. After all these visits, the Swedish Ambassador and the British Foreign Minister visited the Auberge, where Butembo co-ordinates, where they discussed with the teams the situation of the epidemic, the challenges and constraints of the riposte. In addition, they had discussions with women leaders and representatives of religious denominations in Butembo.

Support for providers of the Mabalako sub-coordination

• The Ministry of Health warmly thanks all the local providers who are the main architects of the Ebola response despite the many risks and difficulties they face. All agents involved in the response are entitled to receive their bonus in accordance with the scale in effect since the beginning of this response.

• The Ministry of Health was informed of the decision of some health workers in Mabalako to go on strike on Monday, May 27, 2019. The strike ended on Tuesday, May 28, 2019. These agents are demanding alleged Ebola unpaid premiums between the months of August and December 2018 by the Health System Development Program (HSDP). Based on information collected from the Ministry of Health and the PDSS, there are no Ebola premium arrears for the year 2018.

• However, the situation of these providers needs to be clarified. In fact, after analyzing the lists of strike providers sent to the national coordination by Mangina's sub-coordinator, it appears that they are providers working at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Mabalako. As a reminder, the management of the CTE Mabalako was entrusted successively to two international NGOs who have ensured the organization of services and payment of Ebola premiums from providers since the beginning of the response. In the future, it will be important to clarify the contract transfer procedure of providers when an agency or agency leaves a health zone to avoid misunderstandings.

• It is important to note that the Ministry of Health has developed, with the support of the World Bank, a manual of simplified human resource management procedures related to the response to the EVD epidemic. The manual states that bonuses are not cumulative and any case of fraud, or attempted fraud, will now be followed by sanctions or even disciplinary measures. The manual also provides several types of control for the payment of premiums. Monitoring missions are carried out every month in the different sub-coordinations to check the lists of providers and the evidence of service rendered (attendance lists). The last mission dates from the beginning of May to validate the payment lists for the month of April 2019. However, during the various checks carried out since January 2019,

• Discussions continue with Mabalako's sub-coordination to determine the merits of these claims. In order to avoid such situations in the future and to ensure greater transparency in the management of human resources, all the agents involved in the response will have to sign standard contracts which will be included in a single database for all organizations involved in the response to Ebola.

FIGURES OF THE RESPONSE

126,084 Vaccinated
persons

• 617 people vaccinated on 27/05/2019.

• Of those vaccinated, 34,726 are high-risk contacts (CHR), 61,763 are contacts of contacts (CC), and 29,595 are front-line providers (PPL).
Persons vaccinated by health zone: 32,639 in Katwa, 25,294 in Beni, 16,391 in Butembo, 10,368 in Mabalako, 6,081 in Mandima, 4,513 in Kalunguta, 3,130 in Goma, 3,048 in Komanda, 2,569 in Oicha, 2,302 in Musienene, 2,155 in Masereka , 1.986 in Lubero, 1.980 in Kayna, 1.935 in Vuhovi, 1.817 in Kyondo, 1.487 in Bunia, 1.040 in Biena, 1.012 in Mutwanga, 690 in Rutshuru, 557 in Rwampara (Ituri), 527 in Nyankunde, 496 in Mangurujipa, 494 in Alimbongo, 420 to Mambasa, 355 to Tchomia, 342 to Kirotshe, 333 to Lolwa, 250 to Mweso, 245 to Kibirizi, 161 to Nyiragongo, 97 to Watsa (Haut-Uélé) and 13 to Kisangani.

• The only vaccine to be used in this outbreak is the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, manufactured by the pharmaceutical group Merck, following approval by the Ethics Committee in its decision of 19 May 2018.

Healthcare workers infected

106

• One health worker in Katwa, unvaccinated (refusal), is one of the new confirmed cases and one of the new deaths (community deaths).

• The cumulative number of confirmed / probable cases among health workers is 106 (5.5% of all confirmed / probable cases), including 36 deaths.

Purdue Pharma accused of 'corrupting' WHO to boost global opioid sales

Via The Guardian, a disturbing report: Purdue Pharma accused of 'corrupting' WHO to boost global opioid sales. Excerpt:

Purdue Pharma, the drug manufacturer that kickstarted the US opioid epidemic, corruptly influenced the World Health Organization in order to boost painkiller sales across the globe, according to a report by members of Congress. 

An investigation by Katherine Clark and Hal Rogers, who represent districts in Massachusetts and Kentucky hard hit by the US opioid epidemic, accuses Purdue of replicating its false marketing claims about the safety and effectiveness of opioids to change WHO prescribing guidelines in an attempt to expand foreign markets for its drugs.  

“The web of influence we uncovered paints a picture of a public health organization that has been corrupted by the opioid industry,” said Clark. “The WHO appears to be lending the opioid industry its voice and credibility, and as a result, a trusted public health organization is trafficking dangerous misinformation that could lead to a global opioid epidemic.”

The report, called Corrupting Influence. Purdue and the WHO, accuses Purdue of using pharma-funded organisations and specialists to influence the writing of WHO policy to encourage much wider prescribing of addictive high-strength opioids across the globe. It said that, as a result, “WHO guidelines are serving as marketing materials for Purdue”.  

Clark and Rogers plan to deliver their report to the WHO on Wednesday morning after the organization failed to respond to a letter from a dozen members of Congress two years ago warning that Purdue and Mundipharma International, a UK-based network of global companies owned by members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, were pushing to boost opioid sales globally. 

The 2017 letter cautioned the WHO to learn the lessons of the US opioid epidemic, which has claimed more than 400,000 lives over the past two decades. 

“When the WHO failed to respond to the letter, we began to question why they would remain silent about such a significant and devastating public health epidemic. The answers we found are deeply disturbing,” Clark and Rogers said.  

Their report alleges two WHO guidelines for doctors around the world released seven and eight years ago “contain dangerously misleading and, in some instances, outright false claims about the safety and efficacy of prescription opioids”. 

“Alarmingly, these guidelines mirror Purdue’s marketing strategies to increase prescriptions and expand sales,” the report found.