Ebola deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo exceed 2,500, spread continues

The number of deaths from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has exceeded 2,500, and the spread continues.

The UN coordinator warned that the scale of the Ebola epidemic was "growing exponentially" and that it could spread to other countries, and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) expressed concern that the actual scale of infections could be three times the official count.

According to the Democratic Congo Ministry of Press and Public Affairs on the 21st (local time), the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country was 5,290 as of the 19th, an increase of 82 from the previous day.

Among them, the number of deaths was 2,516, an increase of 40 from the previous day. The fatality rate was 47.6%.

The number of people who have recovered so far is 1,152, and 837 people are currently in quarantine or hospitalized.

The Democratic Congo government announced on this day that it began administering 2,000 doses of the Erbevo vaccine in Chopo Province, which it received first.

Democratic Congo requested the World Health Organization (WHO) for 500,000 doses of Ervevo, a Zaire-type Ebola vaccine that is expected to have some preventative effect, although it is not an approved vaccine for the currently prevalent Bundibuzo-type Ebola. The International Coordination Group (ICG) for vaccine supply, including WHO, announced that it would immediately supply 70,000 doses.

The Democratic Congo government also decided to strengthen Ebola surveillance, including along river basin transportation routes, to prevent Ebola, which is currently outbreaking in six northeastern provinces, from spreading along the Congo River to major cities such as the capital Kinshasa.

Regarding the current Ebola outbreak, Julian Harness, the UN's senior coordinator for Ebola, told reporters on this day, "It is increasing exponentially," and pointed out that half of the deaths since the outbreak was declared on May 15 have occurred in the past 20 days, AFP reported.

Coordinator Harness also said, "Ebola is currently covering an area larger than France," and "the speed and scope of Ebola's spread is faster and wider than response efforts."

“If we deploy more manpower and deploy more resources to remote areas, we can move towards slowing the spread and halting the spread within a few months,” he warned. “Otherwise, this epidemic will become more deadly and there is a risk of it spreading more widely and spreading to neighboring countries.”

The Africa CDC said that it is still only able to detect about 30-40% of the actual infected people, and presented an estimate that the actual number of confirmed cases may have exceeded 10,000-15,000.

Africa CDC officials also said that among the currently identified confirmed cases, less than 10% of cases are known contacts, and less than 40% are epidemiologically linked to other confirmed infection cases.