Ebola cases top 8,000 in DR Congo

Ebola cases top 8,000 in DR Congo

KINSHASA: Failures in contact tracing and continued deaths outside treatment centres have contributed to a recent surge in Ebola transmission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), health authorities said Monday.

The Health Ministry’s latest situation report showed that the cumulative number of confirmed cases has reached 8,067 since the outbreak was declared in mid-May. The outbreak has claimed 3,901 lives, putting the case fatality rate at 48.4%.

The epidemic has spread across 63 health zones in seven provinces: Haut-Uele, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Bas-Uele, Tshopo and South-Ubangi.

Ituri remains the main epicentre, accounting for 76.4% of all reported cases since the outbreak began.

Health authorities said most of the latest confirmed deaths occurred in communities rather than treatment centres in Ituri and North Kivu. They attributed the deaths partly to difficulties in identifying cases and getting patients into care quickly.

The contact-tracing rate has also declined to 79.2%, compared with 83.4% previously, raising concerns about the ability to identify people who may have been exposed to the virus.

The latest report also showed continued transmission in Haut-Uele, while Tshopo has recorded renewed spread of the disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned last week that the virus’s expansion into additional areas, including South-Ubangi and Haut-Uele, has increased the risk of cross-border transmission.

The WHO also highlighted the rising fatality rate and increasing number of deaths occurring within communities as signs of the growing severity of the outbreak.