By Gloria Ogbonna
Health officials are raising urgent concerns that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could be significantly larger and more widespread than current figures suggest, as new infections continue to emerge across several provinces and surveillance efforts struggle to keep pace with the rapidly evolving crisis.
Speaking from the city of Beni, the capital of North Kivu Province, World Health Organization epidemiologist Olivier le Polain warned that major gaps in disease monitoring remain in several high-risk regions, making it difficult for health authorities to fully understand the true scale of the outbreak.
“There are still many blind spots in some areas that are high risk,” Le Polain said Friday. “Surveillance really needs to be strengthened in those areas. The full scale of the outbreak is not yet clear, and we’ll get more clarity as surveillance improves.”
His comments underscore growing fears among international health organizations that Ebola may be spreading undetected through communities in eastern Congo, particularly in remote areas where healthcare infrastructure is limited and access for medical teams remains challenging.
According to Le Polain, new Ebola cases are being identified almost daily in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. The continued appearance of infections in multiple health zones suggests that infected individuals are traveling between communities, helping the deadly virus spread across a broader geographic area.
“The outbreak continues to expand both in terms of case numbers but also in terms of geographic spread,” Le Polain warned. “That reflects the scale of this outbreak—a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected—and the high mobility of the population.”
Health officials fear that population movement throughout eastern Congo could significantly complicate containment efforts. Many residents regularly travel between villages, towns, and refugee settlements, increasing the risk that infected individuals may unknowingly carry the virus into new communities before symptoms are detected.
In response, the World Health Organization is calling for an immediate expansion of surveillance programs, stronger contact-tracing operations, and additional medical resources. One of the most pressing concerns is the shortage of isolation facilities needed to separate infected patients from the general population.
Le Polain noted that all three affected provinces combined currently have only about 250 isolation beds available, a figure many experts believe is inadequate if the outbreak continues to grow at its current pace.
Meanwhile, conditions inside several refugee camps are fueling fears of a potential humanitarian catastrophe.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday that the first two Ebola-related deaths have now been confirmed at Kpangba refugee camp in eastern Congo. The overcrowded settlement is home to approximately 30,000 displaced people, many of whom live in extremely cramped conditions with limited sanitation facilities. In some areas, hundreds of residents are forced to share a single toilet.
Aid organizations warn that such conditions create an ideal environment for the rapid spread of infectious diseases.
“We are all really worried that Ebola in these camps will spread extremely quickly and that there will be panic and people will flee all over, whether or not they’re contacts, whether or not they’re ill,” said Caitlin Brady, the Democratic Republic of the Congo director for the Danish Refugee Council.
The two victims at Kpangba camp were identified as a 60-year-old woman and her middle-aged daughter. According to health officials, the older woman escaped quarantine before authorities could fully monitor her condition. Contact tracers were unable to locate her before laboratory tests confirmed she had contracted Ebola on May 30.
She died the following day. Her daughter, who had also become infected, died on June 1.
Tragically, both women died outside of medical facilities, increasing the risk that others in the community may have been exposed to the virus.
Efforts to safely recover and handle the bodies were met with resistance from local residents. Humanitarian workers attempting to retrieve the remains reportedly came under attack from members of the community.
Public health experts have repeatedly warned that traditional burial practices can significantly increase Ebola transmission. The virus can remain highly infectious after death, making direct contact with the bodies of victims particularly dangerous. However, many families remain reluctant to allow health officials to manage funeral arrangements, preferring to conduct traditional burial ceremonies themselves.
These challenges have complicated efforts to contain previous Ebola outbreaks and continue to pose a major obstacle in the current crisis.
Concerns are also growing at another displacement camp in Ituri Province known as Kigonze. The camp houses roughly 25,000 residents and has already reported multiple illnesses and deaths, though officials have not yet confirmed any Ebola cases there.
Residents say living conditions at Kigonze are extremely poor, with overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to clean water leaving families vulnerable to disease outbreaks.
“If Ebola comes, we’ll be wiped out as we’re packed like sardines,” resident Dorcas Mapenzi told Agence France-Presse.
Mapenzi described daily life in the camp as a constant struggle for basic hygiene and sanitation.
“We displaced people here have no hygiene,” she said. “Our children play next to filthy toilets and even relieve themselves on the ground, in the middle of the tarpaulins that serve as our homes. Given these conditions, how are we going to protect ourselves against this disease, when everyone tells us we need to distance ourselves to fight Ebola?”
As health officials race to identify new cases and contain the virus, international aid agencies are warning that without increased resources, stronger surveillance, and improved conditions in refugee settlements, the outbreak could escalate into a far larger public health emergency.
The combination of population displacement, overcrowded camps, limited healthcare capacity, and ongoing mobility throughout eastern Congo presents a formidable challenge for authorities seeking to stop Ebola’s spread before it claims more lives.
Source Breitbart
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