Concerns are mounting over the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the outbreak reached a sixth province, raising fears that the virus could cross into neighbouring South Sudan.
Gatekeepers News reports that the outbreak, which began in the conflict-affected northeastern province of Ituri, has already been described as the largest Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC.
Declared on May 15, the outbreak is believed to have been circulating for several weeks before it was officially detected. It is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the country.
The DRC’s previous deadliest Ebola outbreak, which lasted from 2018 to 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people out of about 3,500 recorded cases.
In the current outbreak, authorities say more than 2,128 people have died from 4,566 confirmed cases.
Until now, five provinces had reported cases: Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo.
However, a death has now been recorded in northern Bas-Uele province after an individual travelled there from neighbouring Haut-Uele, Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told reporters on Thursday.
The Africa CDC said the outbreak was spreading at an unprecedented rate.
According to the agency, three months after the DRC outbreak was declared, seven times more cases and five times more deaths had been recorded than during the first three months of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which went on to become the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
Despite the rapid spread, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday that it hoped to bring the outbreak under control within three months.
However, humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps warned on Thursday that the virus could spread into South Sudan, which shares borders with both Ituri and Haut-Uele.
“Confirmed cases now sit just 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the South Sudan border, along high-risk travel corridors,” the organisation said in a statement.
Mercy Corps also warned that efforts to contain the outbreak in the DRC were being undermined by overstretched health services, inadequate access to clean water and safe sanitation facilities, fragile public trust and ongoing insecurity.
The latest spread has heightened concerns about the potential for cross-border transmission, particularly through heavily used travel routes connecting affected areas of the DRC with neighbouring countries.
