The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is advancing exponentially

The Ebola epidemic has already caused more than 2,500 deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and "is advancing exponentially," warned this Friday Julien Harneis, main coordinator for Ebola within the United Nations.

"The Ebola epidemic is advancing exponentially" and "expanding widely: it already covers an area larger than that of France," said Harneis from Bunia (DRC) in a press conference broadcast in the Swiss city of Geneva.

To date, the epidemic has caused "more than 2,500 deaths," half of them "in the last twenty days," he said.

"Its advance exceeds the speed of our response, it intensifies and expands faster than the efforts deployed throughout the region," he emphasized.

In just three months, the epidemic has surpassed that which occurred between 2018 and 2020 in the east of the DRC, then considered the deadliest in the country's history with 2,299 deaths out of 3,381 confirmed cases, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) based on what was reported by the Congolese authorities.

Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past fifty years.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment approved against the Bundibugyo strain, responsible for the current outbreak, although clinical trials are ongoing.

This week, a batch of 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, approved against another strain of the virus, Zaire, was approved for shipment to the DRC to evaluate its effectiveness with the Bundibugyo variety.