By Adeola Kunle
The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 2,000 lives, bringing the country close to recording its deadliest-ever outbreak of the highly contagious disease.
Figures released on Tuesday by Congolese health authorities showed that 2,011 people have died out of 4,381 confirmed cases, giving the current outbreak a case fatality rate of 45.9 per cent.
The outbreak, declared on May 15, is believed to have been spreading for several weeks before it was officially announced. It has mainly affected the conflict-hit eastern and northeastern parts of the country and represents the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sania Nishtar, Chief Executive Officer of the Gavi global vaccine alliance, said the outbreak is already regarded as the largest in the country’s history and could potentially become the biggest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.
The latest death toll is approaching that of the DRC's most devastating previous outbreak, which occurred between 2018 and 2020 and killed nearly 2,300 people out of about 3,500 recorded cases.
The current outbreak began in the northeastern Ituri Province before spreading to other provinces, including North Kivu, areas where insecurity, weak health infrastructure and limited government presence have complicated efforts to contain the disease.
Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said authorities had yet to reach the peak of the outbreak but expressed hope that the situation could begin to improve within the next three months.
“We haven’t reached the peak yet,” Kamba said in an interview shared by the Ministry of Health on X.
“Within the next three months, we expect to have already brought the spread under control and to start seeing it decline,” he added.
Insecurity and mistrust slow response
Efforts to contain the outbreak have been hindered by insecurity caused by armed groups operating in affected communities, as well as mistrust among sections of the local population.
The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Yakub Janabi, said many Ebola infections were not being detected by health authorities.
Speaking to reporters in Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, on Monday, Janabi said:
“We are only seeing 30 percent of infected people, where 70 percent of people are dying at home. This is why this Ebola is different.”
Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who helped discover Ebola in 1976, also criticised the handling of the latest outbreak, describing the response as slow and ineffective.
Speaking to the French newspaper Le Monde, Muyembe said there were internal challenges within the country's national coordination system.
“There is an internal problem at the level of the national coordination of the response,” he said.
He added that different actors appeared eager to demonstrate activity even though an effective response structure had not been properly organised.
WHO recommends vaccine trial
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s vaccine experts have recommended a large-scale human clinical trial of Ervebo, the only currently approved Ebola vaccine, to determine whether it can provide protection against the strain now circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ervebo has previously proved safe and effective against the more common Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. However, the current outbreak involves the rarer Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no specifically approved vaccine.
Early findings, including results from animal studies, have suggested that Ervebo may provide some level of cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain.
The Gavi global vaccine alliance, established in 2000 to help developing countries gain access to affordable vaccines, maintains a stockpile of 500,000 doses of Ervebo.
According to Gavi, doses from the stockpile are expected to be used for the planned trials, with some vaccines already available in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Two other potential vaccines targeting the Bundibugyo strain are currently in the early stages of human clinical trials, while a third candidate vaccine is being developed for possible advancement to that stage.
Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes a severe haemorrhagic fever. Over the past five decades, the disease has claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people across Africa.
Adeola Kunle
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