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Congolese health authorities are tracing individuals potentially exposed to Ebola in two previously unaffected provinces, according to internal government documents and a senior official.
The containment push follows a major transmission scare involving a deceased patient’s 300-kilometre journey and two isolated contacts who fled into a border region, raising intense fears that the virus will spread beyond its current epicentre.
The frantic contact-tracing efforts mark a critical expansion of the outbreak, which has already infected 1,307 people and killed 377 across the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu since May 15.
In Tshopo Province, health workers are now tracking everyone who came into contact with the body of a pregnant woman who died of the virus in Ituri on June 27.
Relatives transported her body west by motorcycle to the city of Kisangani before a mortuary sample confirmed the Ebola diagnosis, a multi-zone journey that authorities warn created a high risk of transmission.
Simultaneously, health teams are scrambling to contain a second breach in Haut-Uele province, which borders South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
A senior health official confirmed that two high-risk contacts fled their isolation unit in Ituri and travelled into the neighbouring province.
Although authorities have since located both runaways to return them to quarantine—with one already testing positive for Ebola—workers must now locate and monitor anyone the pair encountered during their flight.
