The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has become the largest ever recorded in the country’s history, with the World Health Organization confirming the virus has now spread into two additional health zones bordering the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
As of September 23, the outbreak had recorded 7,890 confirmed cases and 3,799 deaths, a case fatality ratio of 48.1 percent, across 63 health zones in seven provinces since it began in May. The Bundibugyo strain driving the outbreak has no approved vaccine. South Ubangi and Haut-Uele provinces, which border the Central African Republic and South Sudan respectively, are the latest areas affected, raising fears of regional cross-border spread. Ituri province remains the epicenter with 6,032 cases since May, including 868 new infections in the last 21 days, while North Kivu has logged 1,480 cases with a locally higher 60 percent death rate centered on Butembo.
“It’s very difficult to see Ebola in isolation because even our response to Ebola is affected by the conflict,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, referencing ongoing armed conflict in the region. Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said “when the outbreak is at community level, we cannot talk about control.”
Around 420,000 people are estimated to have had contact with confirmed cases, with roughly 30,000 currently on active contact-tracing lists. In Butembo, physician Dr. Michel Paluku Mukuloli described widespread patient distrust of treatment centers: “Patients think that if they arrive at the hospital, they will be immediately sent to the treatment centre to die.”
