Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed 2,011 people among 4,381 confirmed cases, with the death toll doubling from 1,000 in roughly three weeks as conflict, strikes and difficult access complicate the response.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Congo’s Ebola outbreak has surpassed 2,000 confirmed deaths less than three months after it was declared, as health officials struggle to contain what government data describes as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
Figures released overnight into Tuesday showed 4,381 confirmed cases and 2,011 deaths. Another 704 patients were being treated in admission and isolation facilities.
The pace of fatalities has accelerated sharply.
It took approximately nine weeks for the outbreak to reach its first 1,000 deaths. The next 1,000 deaths were recorded in only about three weeks, indicating that transmission has continued to accelerate despite an expanding response across five affected provinces.
The outbreak was officially declared May 15, although the World Health Organization said Monday that transmission likely began in February.
WHO said some of the earliest illnesses were initially attributed to malaria and typhoid. Testing at the beginning of the outbreak also focused on a more common Ebola virus type.
The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus, creating an additional challenge because there are no approved vaccines or treatments specifically available for it.
Clinical trials of potential vaccines and therapies have begun in Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter.
Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO regional director for Africa, said health authorities remain behind the pace of transmission.
Officials are “chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi told a news conference.
Response teams are also confronting significant logistical and security obstacles.
Rebel conflict and poor roads have made it difficult to quickly reach remote communities, while work stoppages involving health personnel have further strained the response.
Many health workers have gone on strike over a lack of payment for work performed since the outbreak was declared.
Another concern is that most newly identified infections are occurring among people who were not already listed as contacts of known Ebola patients, limiting authorities’ ability to trace transmission chains before additional cases emerge.
The outbreak has already become the second-largest Ebola epidemic recorded.
Only the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak was larger, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.
Congo has extensive experience confronting Ebola. The virus was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The present emergency is the country’s 17th Ebola outbreak and its largest to date.
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