Just over a month after the start of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of confirmed cases in the country has risen to more than 1,000.
The Information Ministry in Kinshasa reported that 254 of the 1,003 confirmed Ebola patients in three provinces have died, while 100 people are considered recovered. It said 365 patients are currently being treated in hospitals and isolation wards.
The fatality rate is currently around 25%. The data is for cases through Saturday and the figures were reported in an X post on Sunday.
Since the outbreak was announced in May, 19 people in neighbouring Uganda have also contracted Ebola and two of them have died of the highly dangerous disease. The cases were linked to the outbreak in the Congo.
Contact tracing below WHO levels
The ministry said 58% of the contacts of confirmed cases are currently being traced. To stop the spread of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) says it is necessary to identify and monitor 90% of all people who have been in contact with an infected person.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has repeatedly expressed concern about the high number of contacts that are unknown and not being traced.
In Ituri province, where the outbreak is centred, the existing medical infrastructure is weak even under normal circumstances, like in many parts of the country. An additional challenge for aid workers is insecurity in many regions in the east of the country, where numerous armed groups are active.
Internal conflict compounding problem
The M23 rebel group currently controls large parts of the two other Ebola-affected provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, including the provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu.
Because of the ongoing conflicts, there are up to 4 million internally displaced people in eastern Congo, according to the United Nations. They often live in very cramped conditions in makeshift camps, with little hygiene provision and inadequate health care. An Ebola outbreak in one of the refugee camps would be fatal, experts said.
Ebola is a life-threatening disease. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with bodily fluids. The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain, in part because there is so far neither a vaccine nor a specific therapy for the Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus.
