The Ebola epidemic sweeping through the Democratic Republic of Congo has grown into the second-largest outbreak ever recorded, according to government figures released Friday, with infections rising more quickly than containment teams can stop them.
The Communications Ministry reported 3,532 confirmed cases and 1,556 deaths.
“It is the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic that we have ever seen,” Carl Skau, acting executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, told Reuters this week. “The world needs to pay much more attention.”
In less than three months, the virus has killed five times more people than earlier outbreaks had at the same point, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent’s top public health body, said.
The epidemic is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a form of the virus for which no approved vaccine or treatment exists.
Response teams are working under punishing conditions in eastern Congo, where dozens of armed groups are active and attacks on health facilities have complicated lifesaving work. At the same time, major reductions in foreign aid have left health operations under-resourced.
The latest case count means only the 2014-16 Ebola crisis in West Africa was larger. That outbreak caused 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO warns official toll may understate crisis
Angele Gapio, who leads emergency operations for the Caritas charity in the northeastern city of Bunia, said public awareness drives were not breaking through, while health workers on the front line were depleted and traumatized.
“The disease has now become established in the community,” she told Reuters. “People continue to seek treatment from traditional healers, and the chain of transmission continues.”
Earlier this month, the WHO warned that the outbreak’s real size may be as much as four times higher than the official count indicates.
Reuters reported this week that disease surveillance has been weakened by vehicle shortages, staffing gaps and mistrust among communities.
Response effort faces funding gap
Africa CDC said in June that $1.4 billion would be needed to bring the Ebola outbreak under control, tripling its previous estimate.
Funding figures presented this week by Africa CDC and the WHO showed that Congo’s May-August response plan had received $213.9 million in pledges, below the $242.4 million budgeted for the effort.
A U.S. travel ban is further limiting the movement of aid personnel. Earlier this month, the Trump administration said American citizens in Congo would be barred from traveling to the United States on commercial flights.
Samaritan’s Purse, which runs treatment centers and depends on U.S. responders for its Congo mission, said the quarantine order would force it to reduce operations.
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