1,003 Ebola Cases and 254 Deaths Confirmed in Eastern Congo

Ebola cases have reached 1,003, with 254 deaths in Eastern Congo, Congo’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Since the declaration of the outbreak, on May 15, a total of 100 people have made a recovery while at least 365 patients remain in hospitals or in isolation, the ministry added. Officials admitted that there could be far more cases they still don’t know about.

This is the country’s 17th Ebola outbreak with the Ituri province as its epicentre and is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus for which there is no known vaccine or treatment yet. Officials say that while the outbreak was the worst ever in its first month, the peak of the outbreak is still ahead.

Noting that contact tracing remains a major challenge, the ministry said that local authorities have only achieved a 55% coverage rate as of yet.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, the Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told AP, “If you want to control an outbreak, especially Ebola outbreak, you must know the index case. We don’t have confidence on when this outbreak started.”

Authorities stated that, as of last week, patient zero is yet to be identified and more than 35,000 people who have come in contact with infected individuals are yet to be traced.

The region’s instability is one of the factors contributing to this challenge. Eastern Congo has been battling with “rebel violence”, with the Allied Democratic Force continuously attacking Ituri. This has cut off access to many villages and forced people to flee their homes, including those sheltering in overcrowded camps.

Officials believe that even after more than a month into the outbreak, the disease is outpacing response efforts and no one knows its true scale.

In Ituri’s capital Bunia, officials on Friday said that 10 people have died in the last week in unusual circumstances at the Kigonze displacement camp, which houses over 20,000 displaced people.

Camp officials said that while there has been no confirmed case of Ebola at the site, the unprecedented death rate has raised fears of a possible outbreak in the camp. Officials have called for an investigation.

Charité Banza, a civil society leader in Ituri, said “If a disease or epidemic were to spread among the thousands of people living at this (Kigonze) site, it would be a real catastrophe given our already very precarious living conditions.”

At least 2 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, including over 320,000 refugees, live in areas at risk of Ebola in Congo, the U.N. refugee agency said.

The agency added that it was “deeply concerned by the accelerating spread” of the virus and “the growing risks it poses to displaced communities across the region” in a statement on Friday.