The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing its worst start to an Ebola outbreak ever recorded. A senior World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that the current outbreak has the highest number of confirmed cases within the first month compared to any previous episode of the disease.
The official blamed the rapid surge on the fact that the virus quickly spread to urban areas. The outbreak was officially declared on May 15, but experts say the virus had already been circulating for months before it was detected. By the latest count, the outbreak has infected more than 1,000 people and claimed 267 lives.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO’s Abdirahman Mahamud explained that part of the reason the outbreak has become so large is that some of the early confirmed cases were found in urban centres like Bunia and the mining town of Mongbwalu.
In the past, many Ebola outbreaks were first identified in rural areas and often fizzled out quickly. This time, however, the disease got a foothold in towns where people move around a lot, making it much harder to contain. "What is important is we need to scale up and this outbreak is moving faster than us," Mahamud told reporters after returning from Bunia last week.
Despite the worrying numbers, Mahamud pointed to some signs of hope. He noted that the number of Ebola treatment beds has increased quickly to over 500 in the past two weeks.
He also said there are signs that community resistance and even violent opposition to Ebola responders is beginning to calm down. "More and more communities are aware of the risk of Ebola and are asking for tools to support and protect themselves," he said.
The situation is especially dire in eastern Congo’s crowded displacement camps, where people are already living in very difficult conditions. Ebola cases have now been reported in at least three of these camps.
Abdoulaye Wone from the International Organization for Migration said at the same Geneva briefing that at least 25 cases have been confirmed in the camps, including 14 deaths. "Even in a normal situation before the outbreak, they were facing overcrowding," Wone said, adding that many people leave the camps during the day to look for work or food. The overcrowding makes it almost impossible to stop the virus from spreading.
The two largest Ebola outbreaks before this one were in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people, and a less deadly outbreak in Congo in 2018. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, which is considered less fatal than some other strains but is still very dangerous.
With the virus now spreading in urban areas and crowded camps, health workers are in a race against time to get ahead of the outbreak before it gets even worse.
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