The Ebola virus disease epidemic, officially declared on May 15 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is spreading faster than any other before, the Africa CDC, the health agency of the African Union (AU), said Thursday.
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As of July 7, 600 deaths out of 1,759 confirmed cases have been recorded in the DRC since the start of the current epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, adding that the toll remained stable – two deaths for 20 confirmed cases – in neighboring Uganda.
The Ebola virus, which is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of living or dead people and causes hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The deadliest epidemic in the DRC caused nearly 2,300 deaths for 3,500 recorded patients, between 2018 and 2020.
“Unfortunately, the virus continues to outpace our response. It is spreading faster than the means to control the situation are deployed,” said Dr. Wessam Mankoula, Africa CDC emergency manager.
“We continue to face the fastest spreading Ebola outbreak on record,” he noted, “not just among the Bundibugyo virus outbreaks, but among all the different viruses causing Ebola,” he added during an online press briefing.
During the first six weeks of the current epidemic, 1,596 cases were recorded, compared to 994 during the first six of the epidemic which hit West Africa between the end of 2013 and 2016, noted Dr Mankoula.
This West African epidemic, the deadliest of Ebola virus disease in history, has caused more than 11,300 deaths out of some 29,000 recorded cases, more than 99% in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In eastern DRC, the number of cases continues to rise steadily and the number of cases is estimated to double approximately every 28 days, according to Dr Mankoula.
“Need more”
“The epidemic continues to spread and its true extent has not yet been fully established,” Anne Ancia, WHO representative in the DRC, indicated earlier in the week.
“Despite encouraging progress, we continue to face major challenges. Current treatment centers are operating at around 90% capacity, putting considerable pressure on the health response, she added.
This is the 17th epidemic of Ebola virus disease in the DRC, but there is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo variant. A clinical trial involving two treatments began on July 2, according to the WHO, which also granted emergency use authorization to the first molecular diagnostic test for this virus.
“We need more resources”, whether “more financial resources or being able to deploy more human resources, to control this epidemic quickly”, underlined Dr Mankoula, estimating the needs at 1.4 billion dollars and urging donors to release funds.
The focus of the epidemic is located in Ituri, a province in the northeast of the DRC bordering South Sudan and Uganda, prey to violence by militias and armed groups. The virus has spread to the provinces of North and South Kivus, large swathes of which are controlled by the anti-government armed group M23.
“Before the arrival of Ebola, millions of people were already facing conflict, hunger, population displacement, precarious basic services and limited access to health care,” said the head of UN humanitarian operations, Tom Fletcher.
Also calling on donors to release funding and “all parties” to facilitate humanitarian access, he warned in a statement that “any delay will result in deaths from Ebola and loss of life linked to the broader humanitarian consequences of this epidemic.”
