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The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Thursday that Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo faster than during any previous outbreak.
DR Congo has confirmed more than 2,000 cases and 796 deaths since declaring the outbreak two months ago, making this the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record.
WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that the country’s historic 2018–2020 outbreak took ten months to reach the same number of cases.
Several factors are severely hindering the containment effort.
The rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus is driving the current outbreak, and scientists have not yet approved a vaccine or treatment for it.
Furthermore, health workers are missing transmission chains, as they detect over 80 per cent of new cases outside of known contact lists.
Active armed conflict in the northeastern Ituri province also blocks access to affected areas, and unidentified attackers recently raided a treatment centre in the provincial capital of Bunia.
Despite these hurdles, medical teams are rapidly scaling up their response by boosting treatment capacity to 800 beds and expanding laboratory networks.
Researchers have also launched clinical trials in Ituri for promising antiviral treatments and vaccines, including Oxford University’s ChAdOx1 vaccine.
Tedros urged the international community to fill a $400 million funding shortfall to help stabilise the region and stop the virus.
