KINSHASA, May 27– The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still at the beginning of its latest Ebola outbreak and may need up to six months to contain it, health minister Roger Kamba has said.
The number of people showing symptoms compatible with Ebola had risen to around 1,000, while 101 cases had been laboratory-confirmed, Kamba told a press briefing late Tuesday, 11 days after the outbreak was declared.
He put probable deaths at about 220, with around 17 deaths confirmed by testing, and said about 3,600 contacts were being monitored.
The figures remain provisional, the minister said, adding that the government had chosen to communicate the broadest possible count of suspected cases while investigations and laboratory confirmation continue.
“We are still at the beginning of an epidemic,” Kamba said.
The outbreak has so far affected three provinces: Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. There were no confirmed cases outside the three eastern provinces, despite alerts from other parts of the country, including the capital Kinshasa, he said.
In Ituri, the mining town of Mongbwalu remains the epicenter, the minister said.
The outbreak, declared on May 15, the 17th in the country since 1976, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, a rarer form of the disease that has complicated early detection.
Kamba said that Bundibugyo is less visibly dramatic in its early phase than the Zaire strain, which has caused many of the DRC’s previous Ebola outbreaks.
Early symptoms, he said, may resemble malaria, including fever, vomiting and diarrhea, while hemorrhagic signs can appear late or sometimes not at all.
There is no licensed vaccine or specific approved treatment for Bundibugyo virus disease, and supportive care, including rehydration, treatment of respiratory distress and management of anemia, remains the main clinical response, Kamba said.
The WHO, in its latest rapid risk assessment, said the outbreak posed a “very high” risk at the national level and a “high” risk at the regional level, while the global risk remained “low.”
The assessment cited rapid geographic expansion, high mobility, insecurity, healthcare worker infections, community deaths and the absence of a licensed Bundibugyo vaccine or specific therapeutics.
Kamba said authorities were deploying diagnostic capacity closer to affected and at-risk areas, including mobile laboratories and additional testing supplies. About 2,000 test kits were being sent to the field, with another 4,000 expected to follow, he said.
The minister said that the “patient zero” has not yet been identified, adding that authorities were relying on surveillance, testing, isolation, contact tracing, community engagement and safe burials to contain transmission.
The DRC’s response plan is being prepared for a period of four to six months, given the scale of the outbreak, Kamba said. “Considering that this is a major epidemic, we may need six months to end it.”
Beyond medical logistics, community resistance and insecurity are major obstacles.
Kamba cited attacks on Ebola facilities in Rwampara and Mongbwalu, saying some residents believed they had the right to retrieve bodies and bury them according to local practices.
He warned that touching patients or corpses could spread the virus, and said misinformation, including claims that the disease was “mystical” or fabricated, had hindered the response.
Risk communication, he said, must rely more heavily on local leaders, religious figures, community health workers and trusted local voices rather than officials arriving from Kinshasa.
The government plans to recruit 60,000 community health workers nationwide from July to strengthen disease surveillance and health education, the minister said.
Access to rebel-held areas has become another major concern.
Asked about the response in Goma and Bukavu, two major cities with confirmed cases reported that are under the control of the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, Kamba said the issue was not only technical but also political and logistical.
On Saturday, the DRC government suspended civilian passenger flights to and from Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province and the epicenter of the outbreak, while keeping humanitarian flights in operation.
Kamba said the temporary suspension of civilian flights at Bunia airport should not be seen as a border closure. The airport, he said, is under renovation and authorities need to ensure that border health procedures for arriving and departing passengers are properly arranged.
“That is why, temporarily, we decided to keep humanitarian flights and suspend civilian flights,” he said, adding that the measure would be lifted “very quickly.”
In a related development, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said Monday that international air services remain safe amid the outbreak, but it urged governments, airlines, airports and health authorities to strictly follow WHO guidance.
ICAO said that Ebola does not spread through casual contact or through the air, but through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person.
The agency said aviation-related measures should be risk-based and evidence-informed, with a focus on exit screening in affected areas rather than broad travel or trade restrictions.
The WHO has advised countries not to close borders or impose restrictions on international travel and trade, while recommending that affected countries prevent confirmed cases and contacts from traveling unless the movement is part of an appropriate medical evacuation.
For DRC authorities, the immediate priority remains better response on the ground: testing faster, isolating cases earlier, tracing thousands of contacts and rebuilding trust in communities already strained by years of conflict.
More cases and deaths are likely to be identified as surveillance expands, Kamba said.
“The more we investigate, the more we will find,” he said, urging the public to treat the rising numbers not only as a sign of spread, but also as evidence that response teams are finally uncovering transmission chains that had gone undetected. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
