At least 223 “suspected deaths” have been recorded due to the Ebola outbreak declared on 15 May in eastern the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.
In a report published by its regional office for Africa, the WHO stated that, as of 24 May, the DRC had “notified 906 suspected cases, including 223 suspected deaths”.
Of the 295 samples analysed, 105 cases, including 10 deaths, were confirmed in laboratory tests across 13 health zones in the provinces of Ituri (seven), North Kivu (five) and South Kivu (one).
The epicentre of the outbreak remains Ituri, which accounts for 89.5% of confirmed cases. Suspected cases are also mainly concentrated in Ituri, where they represent 90.1% of infections and 91.9% of suspected deaths.
To date, 2,231 contacts have been identified in the DRC, although contact tracing remains a “major challenge”, as by 23 May only 19.3% of contacts had been followed up within 24 hours. “Constraints include insecurity, movement restrictions, high population mobility linked to mining communities, and difficulties in tracing contacts in dispersed and cross-border populations, as well as a shortage of trained contact tracers,” the WHO explained.
Initial geospatial analyses of the outbreak in eastern DRC identified “mobility corridors linked to mining” in Ituri, a gold-rich province, as possible hotspots of “early transmission and silent spread,” according to the UN agency. Security incidents against health centres and community resistance have recently become “major operational challenges” in Ituri, with three attacks reported in the Mongbwalu and Rwampara health zones.
These incidents, it added, reflect “community fear and anxiety, persistent mistrust, misinformation, and resistance to safe burial practices, creating additional risks of undetected transmission and disrupting outbreak control efforts.”
In Uganda, as already reported by health authorities, the number of confirmed cases – all in the capital Kampala – rose from two to seven, with one death still recorded (a DRC national, considered an imported case).
So far, 311 contacts have been identified for monitoring in Uganda. This epidemic is also complex due to the lack of approved vaccines and treatments for this Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, whose fatality rate ranges from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.
The DRC, a neighbouring country of Angola, is regularly affected by Ebola outbreaks and epidemics. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids of infected people or animals and causes severe haemorrhagic fever, muscle pain, weakness, headache, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and internal bleeding
The virus likely began circulating in Ituri about two months before the outbreak was declared, according to the WHO, which classified the epidemic on 17 May as a “public health emergency of international concern.” Last Friday, the WHO raised the risk from “high” to “very high” due to the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda, while the risk remains “high” at the sub-Saharan African regional level and “low” globally.
Ten African countries, including Angola, are at “high risk” of being affected by the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda due to their shared borders with both nations. This is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC since the virus was first detected in 1976.
The DRC, a neighbouring country of Angola, is regularly affected by Ebola outbreaks and epidemics. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids of infected people or animals and causes severe haemorrhagic fever, muscle pain, weakness, headache, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and internal bleeding.
Ebola causes a deadly haemorrhagic fever, but the virus — which has caused more than 15,000 deaths in Africa over the past 50 years — is less contagious than COVID-19 or measles.
