The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda has claimed more than 200 lives in its first month, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. With hundreds more cases confirmed, it is the worst Ebola emergency in years – yet less than 10 percent of pledges made to support the fight against the disease have been received from donors.
At least 202 people are known to have died in DR Congo, according to Africa CDC's latest update, with another two deaths recorded in Uganda.
With 894 confirmed cases so far, the current outbreak is three times worse than a previous outbreak in Uganda in 2000, which had 281 cases at the same point, Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC, said on Thursday.
The latest number of cases is believed to be higher, because the outbreak was only confirmed on 15 May – weeks after it was suspected to have begun. Cases have increased by 38 percent since last week and the outbreak is now in 32 health zones across eastern Congo, said Mankoula.
The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccines or treatments and was not tested for in the early days. The more common Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.
The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the cases.
Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda, where 19 confirmed cases have been reported.
Contact tracing remains an issue due to the area's remoteness and ongoing insecurity in Ituri province.
“We are still far from controlling the situation of this outbreak,” said Mankoula.
Funding gap
Donors have pledged $910 million, including $80 million from African Union member states, according to Africa CDC's latest data.
But Mankoula said less than $90 million had been released for the affected countries to date.
Africa CDC estimates it needs 540 personnel to fight the outbreak and so far they have only deployed 84.
A World Health Organization official in Bunia, the main city in Ituri province, said Friday that a Chinese medical team had arrived in Congo and Uganda was also preparing a team.
Over 60 WHO health workers in Congo have been infected by Ebola, the official said, and 34 have died.
So far 74 patients have recovered from the disease across eastern Congo and Uganda.
While the Bundibugyo virus has a high fatality rate, scientists are working on potential vaccines and experimental treatments, including antibodies isolated from survivors.
(with newswires)
