The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is continuing to spread, with more than 1,700 confirmed infections overwhelming health services and raising fresh concern that response efforts are still failing to keep pace with the virus.
The World Health Organization says many infections are still going undetected, treatment facilities are nearly full and the actual extent of the outbreak remains uncertain.
Health authorities reported 1,708 confirmed Ebola cases and 580 deaths as of Monday, with the latest figures released late Tuesday.
According to a report by the WHO Regional Office for Africa, the outbreak is being driven by continued transmission in hotspot health zones across Ituri and North Kivu provinces, a rise in community deaths and new infections spreading into areas that had not previously reported cases.
WHO warned that the health emergency in DR Congo remains at a very high level, saying the virus is continuing to spread faster than response teams can contain it.
“Public health risk in the DR Congo remains very high,” WHO said, adding that sustained transmission continues to outpace the response capacity.
Anne Ancia, WHO's representative to the DR Congo, said it is still too early to conclude that the outbreak is coming under control because the full scale of transmission is not yet known.
“The true scale has not been established,” Anne Ancia, WHO’s representative to the DR Congo, said in Bunia, capital of Ituri province and epicentre of outbreak. “We would like to say it is stabilising, but frankly, we cannot say it yet.”
Health officials remain concerned by the high number of people dying before reaching treatment centres. The WHO report found that delayed detection of cases, referrals and isolation continue to allow the virus to spread within communities.
By Sunday, investigators had reviewed 430 confirmed Ebola deaths. Of those, 397, representing 92.3 per cent, occurred in the community or before patients were admitted to treatment centres.
Health workers say such deaths show that surveillance and response systems are still struggling to identify infected people early enough to stop further transmission.
Contact tracing has improved but remains below the level needed to quickly break the chain of infections. As of Monday, health teams were monitoring 12,412 contacts, yet only 32.4 per cent of confirmed cases had been identified through contact follow-up. According to WHO, this shows that many infections are still occurring outside known contact networks.
“In support of the government-led response, WHO teams are working to reconstruct the history of every infection so that we can understand the chain of transmission and isolate contact cases,” Ancia said.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 and is unfolding in eastern DR Congo, where armed conflict, displacement and weak health services continue to complicate disease control efforts. The provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu remain the hardest hit.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said that, compared with previous Ebola outbreaks on the continent at the same stage, the current outbreak has recorded the highest number of infections and deaths.
The increase in patients is also stretching treatment facilities.
DR Congo has around 700 treatment and isolation beds spread across more than 22 Ebola treatment and care centres. WHO said that by Sunday, 646 patients were in isolation, leaving facilities operating at 94.2 per cent occupancy.
Ancia said treatment centres have reached a “saturation point” and cannot fully meet the growing demand for care in Ituri province.
Despite the mounting pressure, WHO said laboratory testing has expanded rapidly. Testing capacity has increased from about 30 tests each day in Kinshasa to more than 2,000 daily through 10 decentralised laboratories, including the newest facility in Bunia.
Officials also warned that the Ebola outbreak is unfolding alongside a wider humanitarian crisis marked by insecurity, mass displacement, poor access to clean water and fragile health systems, all of which continue to increase the risk of disease spread.
Kaseya said the Ebola response must go hand in hand with efforts to address the broader humanitarian situation. He said Africa CDC and its partners have expanded their funding appeal beyond Ebola to support wider health and humanitarian interventions.
“If we resolve these aspects, we will defeat Ebola, measles and cholera, and also fight insecurity,” Kaseya said.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, a strain that currently has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire strain.
In a step towards finding effective treatment, the WHO-sponsored PARTNERS clinical trial was launched on Thursday, becoming the first study dedicated to testing therapies for Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo strain.