The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Thursday that Ebola was spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) more quickly than during any previous outbreak of the deadly virus.
More than 2,000 cases including 796 deaths have been confirmed in the DR Congo since the outbreak was declared two months ago, making it ‘now the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record’, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
By comparison, he pointed out that the big Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo in 2018-20 ‘took more than 10 months to reach 2,000 confirmed cases’, warning that the virus was spreading faster than ever seen before.
‘In the past month, it has expanded faster than any previous outbreak,’ he warned.
The DR Congo's 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several deaths in Ituri, a mineral-rich northeastern province, plagued by armed groups.
Cases of Ebola, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have so far been found in five DR Congo provinces, as well as in neighbouring Uganda, though the vast majority are in Ituri.
Tedros hailed the rapid ramping-up of the response to the outbreak, pointing out that treatment capacity in northeastern DR Congo now stood at 800 beds, while laboratory capacity had jumped from a single lab to 16.
However, he warned that ‘despite the progress we have made, the outbreak in DR Congo is continuing to outpace the response’.
The WHO chief highlighted that over 80% of new cases were being detected ‘outside known contact lists, showing that transmission chains are still being missed’.
‘About two-thirds of deaths are occurring in communities, among people who never receive care in a health facility,’ he acknowledged.
Complicating things further, the current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
However, Tedros hailed ‘encouraging progress on vaccines and therapeutics’.
Trials for two potential treatments for Bundibugyo patients – the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir – have also been under way in Ituri since July 2.
And this past Monday, the first safety trial began on Monday for the ChAdOx1 vaccine, led by the University of Oxford, Tedros said.
And on Tuesday, a trial of the antiviral obeldesivir began to test its effectiveness in post-exposure prophylaxis for people who had come in contact with confirmed Bundibugyo cases but had yet to develop the disease.
Even without approved vaccines and treatments, 377 people have recovered in the DR Congo, said Tedros, ‘showing that with early diagnosis and safe care, this disease can be survived and stopped’.
The WHO chief said that one of the biggest concerns remained ‘the complex environment in which the outbreak is happening’, with the vast majority of cases found in conflict-torn Ituri.
‘Active armed conflict is hampering access to the affected areas, and hindering the response,’ he said, pointing out that on Wednesday, a treatment centre ‘was attacked’ in Ituri's capital Bunia.
The main priorities, he said, included reducing transmission in Ituri by strengthening surveillance; safe and dignified burials of highly infectious bodies of deceased Ebola patients; and clinical management of the sick.
To do this, he stressed the urgent need for more support from the international community, pointing to ‘a shortfall of more than $400mn’ for a joint plan put forward by the WHO and the African Centres for Disease Control to address the outbreak.
