More than 1,000 cases of contamination have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where there is an epidemic of Ebola disease declared on May 15 and which has killed more than 250 people at this stage, according to a latest official report published Monday, June 22.
The Congolese National Institute of Public Health (INSP) recorded 1,003 cases and 254 deaths, representing an average case fatality rate of 25.3%. Almost all of the patients are reported in Ituri (91.3% of cases, 80.7% of deaths), a remote province in the northeast of Congo plagued by armed groups. The capacity to conduct tests to detect the virus has improved, which partly explains the increase in the number of cases recorded.
In the DRC, three provinces in total are affected by the epidemic: Ituri, neighboring North Kivu and South Kivu, which between them represent an estimated population of 15 million people. The virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever, has also spread to Uganda, which borders the DRC and where the authorities, who have recorded 19 cases including two deaths, declared on June 11 that the situation was “under control”.
The epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is currently no vaccine or treatment. The vaccines developed are in fact only effective against the Zaire virus, responsible for the largest Ebola epidemics in the past. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health emergency of international concern and the Africa CDC estimates that ten countries in the area are at risk.
In Ituri the health response, which is essentially based on measures to isolate patients and trace contact cases, is still struggling to get organized.
At the start of the epidemic, hospitals quickly found themselves overwhelmed and the Ebola treatment centers subsequently set up with the help of teams from the WHO and several NGOs already recorded an occupancy rate of more than 80%, according to the INSP. Health structures, which often operate with few resources in one of the poorest countries on the planet, still lack protective equipment and chlorine, more than a month after the official declaration of the epidemic. The risk of nosocomial infections is considered “high” by the INSP, which reports 78 caregivers contaminated by the virus and 18 deceased.
Caregivers and humanitarian workers are also faced with strong mistrust from local communities. A reluctance to accept post-mortem samples leads to an underestimate of the number of cases. Incidents at health centers have been reported in recent weeks, notably caused by angry residents who came to claim the remains of loved ones who died from the disease.
