More Than 3,000 Dead as Ebola Outbreak Grows in Congo
Death Toll Surpasses 3,000
The latest official toll released by the Congolese National Institute of Public Health showed 6,186 confirmed cases and 3,007 deaths, making a fatality rate of 48.6 percent. [1] A total of 1,409 people have reportedly recovered. [4] More than 3,000 people have died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [5] The figures reflect the scale of an outbreak that the Congolese National Institute of Public Health documented on Wednesday. [1] Over 800 persons are receiving treatment or sitting in isolation while around 1,400 have been discharged as recovered. [5]
Rapid Spread in Insecure Regions
The outbreak was declared on May 15 in the remote north-eastern province of Ituri. [1] It has spread to six provinces in areas where the presence of the Congolese state is weak and insecurity is widespread due to the presence of armed groups. [4] The health response has been overwhelmed by the number of cases while insecurity as well as community resistance have made it harder to identify and treat patients early. [1] The World Health Organisation estimates that around 60 percent of deaths happen outside treatment centres. [5] This pattern highlights the challenges of detecting cases before people die of the disease. [4] American disease control authorities wrote in a recent report that the spread is uncontrolled and that most new cases arise outside known chains of transmission. [5]
No Approved Tools Against Bundibugyo Strain
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. [1] Africa’s disease control authority fears that the true numbers could be three times higher because contact tracing remains very limited. [5] The virus has reached schools after Congolese pupils began a new school year, raising additional concerns about further transmission in classrooms. [5] The fatality rate stands at 48 percent according to local health authorities. [5]
Vaccine Trials Planned for October or November
The World Health Organisation said trials of three potential vaccines should begin by October or November. [4] Two new vaccines against Bundibugyo virus are now in safety trials in the UK and Canada, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva. [1] The WHO has also recommended a full-scale human trial of Ervebo, a vaccine approved for use against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, to determine if it offers any protection against Bundibugyo. [4] Early data suggests that Ervebo, which is made by Merck, could offer some degree of protection. [1] A batch of 16,250 Ervebo vaccines arrived in the DRC in July for frontline medical personnel and vaccination began shortly afterwards in Kisangani, the capital of northeastern Tshopo province. [5] WHO vaccines chief Kate O’Brien said healthcare workers should receive the vaccine only as part of research into whether it is effective against the Bundibugyo strain or not. [4]
Payment Problems Hamper Response Efforts
Six Ebola checkpoints in northeastern Congo stopped reporting last month because the people staffing them had not been paid. [3] Elsewhere officials checking a list of 240 people supposedly working at an Ebola center could find only 40 of the workers. [3] The discrepancy captures a problem that has dogged Congo’s public health system for decades and is now complicating its fight against the world’s fastest-growing Ebola epidemic. [3] The government is trying to purge fictitious workers from payment lists using biometric registration and centralized payments after officials found payrolls padded with people who may not actually be working. [3]
What to watch next is the start of the three potential vaccine trials against the Bundibugyo strain that the World Health Organisation expects to launch by October or November, alongside continued efforts to resolve payment delays that have already halted reporting at checkpoints.
