Africa’s latest Ebola epidemic has surpassed 10,000 infections and claimed nearly 4,900 lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Congolese health authorities.
DRC officials said Tuesday that 10,060 people had contracted the virus and 4,887 had died since the outbreak was identified in May. The figures make it the country’s largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic.
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The virus has also been detected in Kenya and Nigeria. Uganda, which reported cases earlier in the outbreak, was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August. The WHO has cautioned that containing an outbreak spanning multiple countries poses an unusually difficult challenge.
The DRC’s National Institute of Public Health said 2,684 patients had recovered. Based on the reported totals, the outbreak’s fatality rate is nearly 50%.
A major obstacle is the absence of an approved vaccine or targeted treatment for the Bundibugyo virus, the strain driving the outbreak. Researchers are testing whether Ervebo, a vaccine shown to work against the more common Zaire strain, can also protect against Bundibugyo.
The outbreak went undetected for several weeks before being identified in the northeastern province of Ituri. It marked the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak.
Since then, the disease has reached areas across the country’s north and east, where armed-group violence and limited confidence in government institutions have hindered containment efforts.
Most of the reported infections have been recorded in Ituri and North Kivu. The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls parts of North Kivu.
Swiss woman evacuated
Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths before the WHO declared the country Ebola-free in late August.
Kenya confirmed its first case on Oct. 6 and has since recorded nine cases and two deaths. Authorities linked the infections to a traveler who entered the country from the DRC through Uganda.
Nigeria confirmed a case on Oct. 20 involving a 42-year-old Swiss woman who had visited Uganda with her husband. She was later evacuated to a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Officials are investigating the source of her infection because she had no known travel history to the DRC.
Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told Agence France-Presse that the organization was working to trace the infection’s origin.
“We saw that the genomic sequencing of the Kenyan case is similar to the Nigerian case. And we discovered that yesterday with some cases in Beni,” he said.
“Today it’s an outbreak in three regions. We didn’t see that since we started to have experience of Ebola outbreaks. We were not thinking that Nigeria could be an at risk country.”
Kaseya said the outbreak initially involved only three health zones in a single province.
“Today we are talking about eight provinces, more than 66 health zones. To give you an idea, it’s like twice the size of the UK.”
Nigerian health authorities had located 53 contacts of the Swiss woman as they worked to stop additional transmission.
Some experts have expressed concern that the virus may have spread after the couple reached Nigeria on Oct. 3.
According to the WHO, the woman developed symptoms on Oct. 7, sought treatment in Abuja on Oct. 11 and tested positive for Bundibugyo virus on Oct. 20.
Ugandan officials have denied claims that she became infected while in Uganda.
Nurse killed
Community mistrust has further complicated efforts to control the outbreak in the DRC.
The WHO said a nurse was killed and another health worker seriously injured Saturday in the northeastern province of Tshopo.
Marcel Likolo, chief medical officer of the Bafwasende health district, told AFP that local youths attacked the two workers after accusing them of trying to infect residents with tablets.
Likolo said the Ebola treatment center where the attack took place had since been shut down.
Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people across Africa since the disease was first identified in 1976.
Researchers are continuing to assess whether Ervebo, which has proven effective against the Zaire strain, can also offer protection against Bundibugyo virus.
