The new team of health experts coordinating the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo plans to train Congolese citizens to conduct surveillance and vaccinations in order to build trust among locals. Containment of the deadly disease has been hampered by a mistrust of foreigners in communities inside North Kivu and Ituri provinces. CGTN's Chris Ocamringa has more from Kinshasa.

The surveillance against Ebola has been scaled up in the DRC. This comes a week after the World Health Organization sounded the highest alarm over the outbreak. The global health body declared the disease an International health emergency after a case was confirmed in Goma - a densely populated city in the east that borders Rwanda.

PETER GRAAFF WHO DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY OPERATIONS "People travelling from Goma including across the border to Rwanda are being checked. So over the course of the outbreak we and the Congolese authorities have tested over 70 million travelers."

The WHO decided against declaring the outbreak a global emergency on three previous occasions because it regarded the risk of the disease spreading globally to be low. But the discovery of the case in Goma signaled a change. The city has an international airport which health experts describe as a gateway to the rest of the world. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi responded to the WHO declaration by announcing he would personally take over supervision of the Ebola response. And he appointed a new team of experts led by veteran Ebola researcher Jean-Jacques Muyembe.

JEAN-JACQUES MUYEMBE DRC EBOLA TEAM LEADER "What we want is to involve the population of Beni, of Mangina and to follow up the strategy we will implement there. The first thing is to train young people in this region. They will be in charge of surveillance and vaccination. They will speak of the same language of the people here."

The outbreak's occurrence in a conflict zone where rebels have attacked health workers and facilities.

CHRIS OCAMRINGA KINSHASA, DR CONGO "The International Community and the DRC government have come up with a program aimed at strengthening the response to the Ebola outbreak over the next six months. But they are calling on the world to contribute more money to help contain the deadly disease that has killed more than 1700 people since August last year. Chris Ocamringa, CGTN, Kinshasa, DRC."