More than 2,000 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), authorities said on Tuesday, as the latest outbreak continues to spread through parts of the country.
Health authorities reported 2,011 deaths from 4,381 confirmed cases, putting the current outbreak among the deadliest Ebola epidemics recorded in the country.
The outbreak, which was officially declared on May 15, began in the northeastern Ituri province before spreading to other areas, including North Kivu.
The affected regions have been severely hampered by insecurity, limited healthcare infrastructure and the presence of armed groups, complicating efforts to contain the virus.
The latest outbreak is the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola surge and has been described by Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar as the country’s largest outbreak so far, with the possibility that it could become the biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded.
The current death toll is approaching that of the DRC’s 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak, which killed nearly 2,300 people from about 3,500 recorded cases.
Congolese health authorities put the case fatality rate in the current outbreak at 45.9 per cent.
“We haven’t reached the peak yet,” Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said in an interview shared by his ministry on X on Tuesday.
He expressed optimism that the authorities would be able to contain the spread within three months.
“Within the next three months, we expect to have already brought the spread under control and to start seeing it decline,” Kamba said.
Response hampered by insecurity
Health officials and international partners have faced significant challenges in tracking and treating patients, partly because of insecurity and mistrust among communities in affected areas.
Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Africa, said the official figures could represent only a fraction of the actual infections.
Speaking to reporters in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, on Monday, Janabi said authorities were detecting only about 30 per cent of infections, while many patients were dying at home.
“This is why this Ebola is different,” he said.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese virologist who helped identify Ebola in 1976, also criticised the response to the latest outbreak.
In an interview with Le Monde, Muyembe described the response as “slow and ineffective”, pointing to what he called problems within the national coordination structure.
Vaccine trials planned
Efforts are also under way to determine whether an existing Ebola vaccine can offer protection against the strain currently circulating in the DRC.
WHO vaccine experts recommended on Friday that a full-scale human trial be conducted to assess whether the Ervebo vaccine can provide cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain.
Ervebo has already been shown to be safe and effective against the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. However, there is currently no vaccine specifically approved for the Bundibugyo strain involved in the latest outbreak.
According to WHO experts, preliminary evidence, including animal studies, suggests that Ervebo may provide some protection against the strain.
Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, maintains a stockpile of about 500,000 Ervebo doses and said vaccines from the reserve would be made available for the planned trials.
Some of the doses are already in the DRC.
Two other potential vaccines targeting the Bundibugyo strain are currently undergoing early-stage human clinical trials, while a third candidate is being developed.
Ebola is a highly contagious viral disease transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and can cause severe haemorrhagic fever.
The disease has killed more than 15,000 people across Africa over the past five decades.
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