Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Six provinces affected

Kinshasa/Bunia. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, six provinces in the Central African country are now affected by Ebola. Cases have now also been confirmed in the city of Buta in the province of Bas Uélé, which can be traced back to infected people from the neighboring province of Haut Uélé, said the director of the African health authority Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, in his weekly situation report.

According to the Congolese Ministry of Health, 4,566 cases have been confirmed since May and 2,128 people have died from the highly contagious infectious disease. But these are just the numbers since the Ebola outbreak was officially announced, emphasized Kaseya. “All the studies we have suggest the outbreak started around February, and we have no idea what happened between February and May.” All case number data only covered the period from May to now.

“We are not claiming that this data is accurate,” Kaseya said. But in view of the rapid increase in the number of cases or deaths, which are already several times greater than after twelve weeks in the largest Ebola outbreak to date in West Africa, Kaseya warned: "If we do not stop this outbreak, it will last longer than a year and will be the largest in the world." The risk of the outbreak spreading to other countries also increases. In the first phase of the outbreak, there were also cases in Uganda that were traced back to travelers from the Congo.

In addition, deaths usually occur in hospitals and isolation wards where Ebola patients are treated and then die there. However, currently more than 63 percent of deaths come from the general population in villages and cities and are often not buried by trained assistants. “We don’t know how the body will be handled and that’s why the outbreak is happening at the community level and spreading at the community level,” Kaseya said, referring to the highly contagious corpses of deceased Ebola patients.

The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain, also because there is currently neither a specific vaccine nor a specific therapy for the Ebola pathogen of the Bundibugyo type. Clinical testing of two antiviral therapy procedures has been underway since the beginning of July. Given the severity of the outbreak, it should also be clarified whether the pathogen may have mutated.