ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 14 — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has voiced concern over the rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the death toll surpassed 2,000.
Addressing an online briefing on Thursday, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya warned that the continued Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak is currently outpacing conventional response efforts, as transmission rapidly expands across a wider geographic area.
“From May 15, when this outbreak was declared to date, you can see how the outbreak is moving, from three health zones in a single province, we are now talking about 54 health zones and six provinces,” said Kaseya.
As the outbreak rapidly expands across the DRC, the latest Africa CDC data showed that the Central African country has recorded a total of 4,449 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths. So far, 886 patients have recovered from the disease.
The African Union’s specialized continental public health agency warned that the disease’s transmission could be even higher than reported, mainly given the outbreak’s spread at the community level.
According to Kaseya, 12 weeks since its declaration, the outbreak has recorded seven times more cases and five times more deaths than the next-highest comparator, the West Africa outbreak, at week 12.”If we don’t stop this outbreak, it must last more than one year, and it will be the largest one in the world,” the Africa CDC chief warned.
Kaseya also highlighted several critical operational gaps. In particular, he identified the rising case fatality rate, currently standing at about 46.3 percent, as well as limited contact tracing capacity as the most concerning constraints, amid climbing community cases and deaths outside known transmission chains.
Health experts and officials also expressed concern over rising cases and deaths among children, with infants exhibiting a disproportionately high rate of fatalities. “We are losing almost 66 percent of infants less than one year, and around 59 percent of our children between one to four years.
This is not acceptable,” Kaseya said, adding that the agency is working with the United Nations Children’s Fund to establish a dedicated treatment center for children, aiming to reverse the alarming trend. The ongoing Bundibugyo outbreak, declared on May 15, is the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak.
Beyond the DRC and Uganda, 11 other countries across the continent have been identified as high-risk, namely South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Zambia, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Somalia.(Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
