BUNIA, EASTERN CONGO – Tracing people who came into contact with Ebola patients remains a major challenge, with the number of confirmed cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo reaching 1,003, of which 254 have died, authorities said.
Congo’s Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that a total of 100 people have recovered since the outbreak was declared on May 15, centered in Ituri province. At least 365 patients are hospitalized or in isolation.
The Ebola outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus for which there is no vaccine or treatment, has become the deadliest in history in its first month. Officials acknowledge that there may be far more cases still unknown and that the peak of the outbreak is still far away.
The ministry said contact tracing remains a key challenge for local governments, with coverage at only 55%.
“If we want to control an outbreak, especially an Ebola outbreak, we have to know the index case. We have no confidence in when this outbreak started,” Dr. Jean Kaseya, executive director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press last week.
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As of last week, authorities had also not been able to identify patient zero or trace more than 35,000 people who had come into contact with infected people, officials said.
One reason for this is that eastern Congo is also battling continued violence by rebel groups. In Ituri, attacks by the Islamic State-backed Democratic Coalition Forces have cut off access to many villages and forced people to flee their homes, including those sheltering in overcrowded camps or constantly on the move.
More than a month after the outbreak, authorities believe infections continue to outpace response efforts and no one knows its true scale.
Displaced people at risk after unexplained deaths reported in camp
At the Kigonze displaced persons camp in Bunia, the capital of Ituri region, camp officials said on Friday that 10 people had died in the past week due to unusual circumstances, raising concerns about a possible outbreak of infection in the camp, which is home to more than 20,000 displaced people.
I led the U.S. CDC response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Emerging outbreaks require massive, immediate and sensitive action
Camp officials said there were no confirmed cases of Ebola at the site, but added that the death rate was unprecedented and needed to be investigated.
The United Nations refugee agency says at least 2 million people, including more than 320,000 refugees, have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Ebola-risk areas in Congo.
The agency said in a statement Friday that it is deeply concerned about the “accelerating spread” of the virus and the “increasing risk it poses to displaced communities across the region.”
“If a disease or an epidemic were to spread among the thousands of people living in this (Kigonze) place, it would be a real catastrophe, given our already very precarious living conditions,” said Charité Banza, a civil society leader in Ituri.
— Justin Kabumba and Constan Sameh Bagalwa
