Congo says the death toll in fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has passed 1,500

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people in eastern Congo in the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease, data released Thursday showed, marking a 50% increase in around a week as the emergency continues to outpace response efforts.

As of Tuesday, 3,442 cases had been recorded, with 1,521 deaths, according to the latest government update. The sharp rise since last week partly reflects a backlog of cases and deaths that had not yet been confirmed or recorded, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The outbreak, declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Delays in contact tracing, difficulties accessing affected areas, mistrust from communities and violence by armed groups and some residents have hampered the response, the Africa CDC said.

The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo’s remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases, but there have been others confirmed in five provinces, including one of the country’s largest cities, Kisangani.

Neighboring Uganda declared itself free of Ebola on Tuesday following the discharge of the country’s last patient in mid-June.

Ebola is rare, but highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Thursday that 63% of confirmed deaths in the last two weeks occurred outside of treatment centers.

Kaseya said this is largely due to the “unsafe handling of infected bodies” by residents. Traditional burial practices in some communities involve touching the bodies of the deceased, which can be highly contagious.

The restrictions that health authorities have placed on such funerals, along with widespread misinformation asserting that the deadly virus isn’t real, have angered some residents and led to attacks on health facilities.

In Ituri’s Nyakunde health zone, international partners supporting the Ebola response had to temporarily relocate after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment center, sparked by a patient’s death.

Officials say the relocation of these partners, including Africa CDC and Mercy Corps, has disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.

Dr. Désiré Duabo, chief medical officer for the health zone, said foreign aid groups and agencies had provided much of the supplies, equipment and operational support, and warned that the small stocks left are “almost depleted.”

Attacks such as the one in Nyakunde are causing anxiety among health workers and making it difficult for them to carry out their duties, said Pierre Akilimali, the Ebola response incident manager at the National Public Health Institute of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“They are working amidst risks of infection as well as risks to their personal safety,” he said.

Local health officials say security has since stabilized and are urging partners to return, with Africa CDC saying teams could redeploy as soon as next week.

The latest outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were reported, of which over 11,000 people died. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization says the global risk of spread remains low because Ebola does not travel through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses. Cases detected outside the affected region have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.

In Congo, however, the risk of the spread remains “very high,” according to the WHO.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.