As the death toll rises to almost 1,500, and with a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain potentially still months away, health workers face a battle to slow the outbreak The lates…

As the death toll rises to almost 1,500, and with a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain potentially still months away, health workers face a battle to slow the outbreak The latest numbers of confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made this latest outbreak the fastest growing in the known history of the virus. At 3,360 confirmed cases, the disease is now affecting people in five provinces in the east of the DRC, with 1,487 deaths recorded, representing an overall case fatality rate estimated at about 45%, according to Congolese health officials. Health responses to the outbreak have been badly hampered by conflict in many of the affected areas. “I fear that at some point, life may come to a standstill here in our province of Ituri,” said Deborah Nzuva, a mother of four who lives in Rwampara, one of the affected regions. “We were already in a precarious situation before the Ebola virus disease, which continues to claim its victims.” Since officially declared by the Congolese authorities on 15 May, the Bundibugyo strain of the virus has spread faster than any of the country’s 16 previous Ebola outbreaks – and the numbers are approaching the previous worst toll, in 2018-2020 when 3,470 people in DRC were infected. Prof Pierre Akilimali, from the country’s public health institute (NPHI), is in charge of the Ebola response. He emphasises that the disease continues to spread and that it is still difficult to know when it will reach its peak. According to him, there is a way to go and the road to bringing the outbreak under control is a long one. “Here in Ituri, we have the issues of insecurity, mining and high population density, which make the current outbreak more complex than previous ones,” he said. The Congolese authorities say they have taken a number of measures to limit spread, including strengthening surveillance through community liaison officers, building more than 20 Ebola treatment centres, and setting up local laboratories for testing. “The public must also play their part by seeking medical advice at the slightest suspicion of infection,” Akilimali said. “This will help us to respond effectively to the disease.”