Ebola Surges Past 9,000 Cases in DRC as Kenya Reports 2nd Case
The latest WHO situation report puts confirmed cases in Congo at 9,066, including 4,381 deaths, since the outbreak was declared in May.
Seven provinces are now affected: Haut-Uele, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Bas-Uele, Tshopo and South-Ubangi.
The Dakwa health zone in Bas-Uele province is the newest to register infections with the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, WHO said. That brings the total number of affected health zones to 65 since the outbreak began.
Transmission remains highly uneven across affected areas, the report said. Ituri is still the epicenter, while North Kivu and Haut-Uele continue to see significant spread.
Catherine Swallwood, WHO’s incident manager for Congo, said authorities remain worried about the share of deaths occurring in communities, at roughly 60%.
She said that over recent weeks, about one in three new cases has been a community death, meaning health workers are failing to identify patients before they die.
The outbreak is now the largest and deadliest on record in Congo, and the second-biggest Ebola epidemic worldwide, behind the 2014-2016 crisis in West Africa.
Meanwhile, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called for stronger regional preparedness to keep the disease from spreading further. The appeal followed Kenya’s report last week of its first imported case from Congo.
On Wednesday, Kenyan authorities confirmed a second Bundibugyo case: a 39-year-old man who is a close relative of the country’s first confirmed patient.
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