Bunia, Congo – The Ebola outbreak in Congo has killed at least 999 people, according to official data released overnight on Wednesday, with the devastating toll in what is already being described as the fastest Ebola outbreak in history compounded by a strike by some health workers.
As of Monday, the outbreak had recorded 2,473 infections and 999 deaths, according to the latest information from Congo’s Ministry of Health. At least 737 patients are currently in isolation and admitted to hospitals, the report said.
The Ebola outbreak declared on May 15 is different from most previous Ebola outbreaks because there is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo virus that causes it. It is also killing more people at a faster pace than any outbreak on record, including the 2013-2016 outbreak, which is considered the worst in history, with more than 11,000 deaths among at least 28,000 people infected. The outbreak took about eight months after the first case to reach 1,000 deaths.
The World Health Organization said the scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times larger than the number of recorded cases, as the majority of reported cases have occurred outside of monitored contacts, and the epicenter still exists in areas that are difficult to reach, mainly due to rebel conflict.
Although rare, Ebola is highly contagious and can be transmitted through body fluids such as vomit, blood, and semen. The illness it causes is serious and often fatal.
Number of Ebola infections in Congo exceeds 2,000, 754 deaths, health worker strikes increase
Officials also warned that 80% of new infections are through unknown transmission chains, a sign that the virus is spreading faster than health authorities can track it, despite a stepped-up response in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, and four other provinces where cases have been recorded.
Community resistance to Ebola teams, especially those that provide safe and dignified burials, is also hampering the response. Robert Njalonga, director of civil protection in Ituri province, said some communities were refusing to allow burial teams to seek traditional burials, increasing the risk of further infections.
“The biggest challenge remains resistance, or outright refusal, from some communities to accommodate response teams,” Njalonga said. “On several occasions, burial teams had to be escorted by security forces to ensure safe and dignified burials.”
Mr Njalonga said a lack of burial supplies was slowing the response to reported deaths, while some affected health zones still lacked operational mortuary teams.
Attacks on medical facilities and response teams have forced the evacuation of frontline workers and aid groups in some areas. Some medical workers have been on strike because they have not been paid since the outbreak began.
A member of a team carrying out safe Ebola burials was recently injured when assailants threw stones at his car as it returned from a burial in Bunia last week, according to the state civil protection authority.
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The attack highlighted the challenges facing the response in eastern Congo. In Ituri’s Irum territory, the local military administrator recently said Ebola was a bigger threat than the Islamic State-linked Democratic Coalition insurgency and called on residents to support health workers rather than attack them.
Speaking at the African Health Summit in Ghana on Tuesday, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called for increased efforts to slow the outbreak.
“If we don’t stop this outbreak today, it could become one of the worst Ebola outbreaks the world has ever recorded,” Kaseya said.
According to the Africa CDC, less than 9% of the probable contacts of confirmed cases are currently being monitored, far below the level needed to contain the spread. More than 60% of deaths occur in the community before patients receive treatment.
Pierre Akirimari, Ebola response incident manager at the National Institute of Public Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said the high number of deaths in the region suggests that many infections were not detected or isolated in time, and the virus continued to spread.
— Thriving Heli Ngorora and unchanging Same Bagalwa
