The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the deadliest in the country’s history, with at least 2,325 deaths surpassing the toll of the 2018-20 outbreak, as the virus spreads faster than any outbreak on record.
Confirmed cases have risen to 4,945. The DRC’s National Public Health Institute said 101 new cases were detected in the previous 24 hours in its latest report on Sunday. The latest government data shows that the total number of deaths has surpassed the 2,299 deaths recorded in the 2018-2020 outbreak, which was previously the country’s worst on record.
The epidemic is now killing one person every 30 minutes. Six of DRC’s 26 provinces have been affected, mainly those along the country’s northeastern border. More than 3,400 of the cases have been recorded in Ituri province, where the outbreak was first reported.
A virus outpacing the response
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations humanitarian chief, said in a statement on Friday that the outbreak is the fastest growing on record, as he outlined the latest efforts to contain the virus. “We need speed, scale, and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of us,” Fletcher said. He also warned that Ebola is winning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and said the international community cannot let the virus outrun the response.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that at its current pace, the outbreak is on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016. That earlier crisis killed more than 11,000 people across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and accelerated the push to develop a vaccine. West Africa’s 2014-16 outbreak resulted in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation. The outbreak, the DRC’s 17th, was already the biggest in the country’s history in terms of the number of cases, a milestone reached in late July.
No vaccine and late detections compound the crisis
The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, which has no approved vaccines or treatments. A small number of experimental vaccines and therapies are being evaluated, while global health authorities assess whether existing Ebola treatments could offer protection. Evidence is limited to animal studies.
The proportion of people dying from the outbreak after a confirmed infection, known as the case fatality ratio, has risen from about 20 percent in early June to 46 percent, according to government data. That means nearly one in every two confirmed cases is now deadly. In May, the outbreak of the disease in the DRC and Uganda was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO.
Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist recently deployed to the DRC with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, offered a stark assessment. “Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier,” he said. “Instead, we’re still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community,” Parisch said.
Uganda has reported at least 20 cases. All were detected in the capital, Kampala. The outbreak has gained momentum since it was declared on May 15, as weak health infrastructure, the region’s remoteness, and ongoing conflict near the DRC’s borders with South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda have hindered response efforts.