The number of confirmed Ebola infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen above 10,000, and the epidemic is now reaching into neighbouring countries as well as spreading within the DRC.
Government figures released on Tuesday recorded 10,060 confirmed cases and 4,887 deaths, according to the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health. Nearly half of those confirmed to have the virus have died, making this the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and also its deadliest.
Outbreak ranks among the largest on record
Counting cases outside the DRC, the wider epidemic is the second-largest and second-deadliest on record. Only the 2014-2016 West African epidemic was bigger, infecting 28,600 people and killing more than 11,000 within two years.
Health authorities said about 80 percent of new cases are arising outside the chains of transmission they are monitoring. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said at least 95 percent of cases must come from known contacts before the outbreak can be considered under control.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain with no approved vaccine or treatment. On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the first clinical trial of a vaccine had started.
Overwhelmed clinics and attacks on health workers
Five months in, responders say some treatment centres are overwhelmed, while remote and newly affected areas lack medical supplies and staff. Cases have now been recorded in 66 health zones across eight provinces, up from just three in the first days.
Many teams lack adequate vehicles and struggle to persuade families to bring in the sick or allow safe burial of the dead. At least half of those who died were never admitted for treatment. Routine care has also suffered, with childhood vaccinations disrupted and maternal deaths doubling in some provinces soon after the outbreak was declared.
Pay disputes are common. Last week, Ebola responders in Nia Nia, Ituri province, stopped work over bonuses owed since late August. Health workers have also come under attack amid public mistrust and frustration with the government’s response.
On Saturday, assailants killed a nurse and seriously injured a colleague who were responding to a suspected Ebola case in Bafwasende, Tshopo province, the WHO said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that everyone protecting communities from the disease must be able to work safely and with dignity. Last month, local politician Marie-Celestin Karondwa was fatally beaten after defending the Ebola response on the radio, his party said.
Cross-border cases prompt quarantines and screening
The virus has reached further beyond national borders than any earlier Ebola epidemic, and governments and international organisations have worked to contain infections that cross them.
In Uganda, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi announced on Sunday that citizens returning from the DRC must quarantine for 21 days at their own expense as a precaution. Ugandan officials said there are no active infections after 20 cases, mostly imported from the DRC, and two deaths over the summer.
Swiss authorities, however, said a woman married to a Swiss diplomat was infected during a September visit to Uganda. She was diagnosed with Ebola last week while in Nigeria, which made it the fourth African country affected, and Nigerian officials responded with heightened airport screening. On Monday, she was evacuated to Switzerland for treatment.
In Kenya, confirmed infections rose rapidly in October. On Monday, 20 contacts of the country’s first patient were released after completing 21 days of mandatory quarantine, while 98 remain under monitoring, the WHO said. Kenya’s tally has since risen to nine confirmed cases, two of them fatal.
