Ebola’s deadly march in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached new ground, with suspected cases reported in a province that had not previously been touched by the outbreak — a troubling development as the death toll climbed to 600.
The outbreak, declared on 15 May, has infected 1,759 people across Congo’s eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, according to the government’s latest situation report.
Yet those figures do not include two suspected cases identified in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo province and one of the country’s largest cities, the report noted.
Officials said one of the Kisangani cases is linked to the health zone of Niania in Ituri province, where the first cases were reported. The second, however, “does not appear to have a geographic link” beyond Kisangani, raising fresh concerns about how far the virus may have travelled, the report said.
In response, teams have begun bolstering surveillance in Kisangani, intensifying contact tracing and tightening other containment measures aimed at stopping further spread, the situation report said.
In the previous 24 hours alone, the report recorded 51 new cases and 20 new deaths.
Last week, it was reported that Congolese health authorities were tracking people who may have been exposed to Ebola in two provinces not previously affected by the outbreak: Tshopo and Haut-Uele.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that the outbreak had not yet stabilised and remained on an upward trajectory, with population movement continuing to fuel transmission.
