A hundred days after the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak was declared, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing an epidemic of unprecedented scale and efforts must intensify to contain the spread in the eastern region and across borders, UN agencies warned on Monday. The World Health Organization called for scaled-up action in affected communities, citing ongoing clashes among armed groups in eastern DRC, conflict-related displacement and growing hunger as complicating factors.
Response capacity has expanded considerably in 100 days. The testing network has grown from a single site to 19 laboratories capable of analyzing more than 3,000 samples daily. Treatment capacity has jumped from fewer than 10 beds to over 1,300. Community engagement activities have reached more than 2.5 million people and contact tracing has climbed from 9 percent in the first week to 84 percent as of August 18. Clinical trials of potential treatments and evaluation of vaccine candidates are underway, alongside the rollout of the first molecular diagnostic test for the Bundibugyo virus.
Despite these advances, the mortality rate remains high both in communities and among patients in treatment centers. Around 60 percent of the 260 weekly deaths recorded over the last six weeks occurred outside Ebola treatment centers, according to WHO. The organization said this highlights ongoing difficulties in detecting cases early, referring patients swiftly to healthcare facilities and ensuring access to treatment.
Insecurity, displacement, attacks on health facilities and difficulties accessing care continue to hamper the response. WHO stressed that interventions must be better tailored to local transmission dynamics, missions in active transmission hotspots must be scaled up and high-risk areas need to be well prepared before cases emerge. The epidemic is unfolding amid a wider humanitarian crisis in which communities face malnutrition and lack access to safe drinking water.
While there are currently no Ebola cases in South Sudan, UN agencies said risks persist with continued population movements to and from DRC. UN agencies and partners are conducting prevention efforts including surveillance, screening at points of entry, training health workers, providing medical supplies and raising awareness through radio and social media. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan said protection for humanitarian personnel must be scaled up after four aid workers were abducted by unidentified armed men while transporting critical Ebola supplies to the border town of Libogo.