The number of suspected cases of the 17th Ebola outbreak in DR Congo continues to climb, reaching at least 1.077, authorities in Kinshasa said yesterday Wednesday.
According to the most recent epidemiological surveillance bulletin from the Ministry of Health, released yesterday, 121 of these cases are laboratory-confirmed, including 17 fatalities–the text notes that the number of deaths is likely very underestimated because diagnoses are delayed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also stresses that the dimensions of the outbreak are likely to be much larger, as the outbreak, in Ituri province, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, was not detected until weeks after it occurred, and not all suspected cases are reported. In addition, fighting is raging in the area, complicating efforts to contain the spread of the outbreak.
In Uganda, seven confirmed cases linked to the outbreak in eastern DR Congo and one death have been reported. Kampala is not releasing numbers for the suspected cases.
Ugandan authorities have announced that they are closing the border, initially for a month, with the only exceptions in which crossing will be allowed for health personnel trying to deal with the epidemic, humanitarian missions and food deliveries, the health ministry has clarified.
Those arriving in Uganda from DR Congo will be placed in isolation for 21 days–this is the maximum incubation period for the virus–under the supervision of health authorities.
For its part, the US has stressed that it has no intention of allowing “a single case” of Ebola to enter US territory, through the lips of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while press reports said that Washington intends to open a “quarantine centre” in Kenya for suspected cases, especially Americans, who want to go to the country.
WHO director-general Tedros Adanom Gebresus is expected to arrive in DR Congo tonight, according to officials.
Ebola, a highly contagious virus, spreads through close contact with infected people or bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever. It remains highly feared despite the recent development of vaccines and effective treatments against the Zaire strain of the virus, which has been blamed for most epidemics in the past.
The current outbreak is attributed to the rarer strain of the virus, Boudibugio–for which there are neither vaccines nor treatments, and has a mortality rate as high as 50%.
Ebola has claimed the lives of at least 15,000 people in Africa over the past fifty years, with a mortality rate of between 25% and 90%, according to the WHO.
The deadliest epidemic in DR Congo had claimed the lives of nearly 2,300 people out of a total of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.
