Deadliest Ebola outbreak in Congo’s history reaches 11,000 cases

Congo’s Ebola outbreak has reached 11,042 cases and 5,387 deaths — almost half of those infected — making it the country’s deadliest, according to the latest government data from Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in Congo and the fastest-growing in the country’s history. It surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases within 40 days of the response being activated. By comparison, the 2018 outbreak took about 235 days to pass 1,000 cases. The ongoing outbreak, which was officially declared in May, continues to spread and remains difficult to tackle due to ongoing armed conflict, a crisis in the health system, poor roads and violence from residents fuelled by mistrust and misinformation. Unpaid salaries and strikes by workers are complicating the response further, paralysing key facilities in several regions and forcing work to stop at numerous screening checkpoints along transport axes, at river ports, on municipal borders and at airports, the Health Ministry said. A resurgence of violence by armed groups in the two main hotspots, Ituri and North Kivu provinces, has alarmed health authorities, who are calling for an end to the fighting so that health workers can reach the sick without obstacle. The Ministry also warned that mistrust is a major obstacle to containing the outbreak, showing itself in harmful rumours, high rates of refusal of health screenings, resistance to safe burials and falling attendance at health facilities. In some cases, the mistrust among local communities fuels violence against medical personnel and facilities, which is also hampering operations, shutting down several response points across the country, including in Ituri, the epicentre of the outbreak. No approved vaccine, but trials are under way The Bundibugyo virus responsible for this outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment, although several trials are under way. The World Health Organization (WHO) backed two vaccine candidates last week: one developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, the other by Moderna. The trial will be led by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, with support from international partners, including the WHO. ‘Vaccines are powerful tools, but they’re not substitutes for the proven measures that can save lives now,’ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the press conference announcing the trials on 4 November, citing early care, contact tracing, isolation, safe and dignified burials and trusted engagement with communities. Dozens of Ebola outbreaks have been reported since the disease was first identified in 1976. The largest and deadliest occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, with 28,000 infections and more than 11,000 deaths.