Ebola cases in Congo top 3,200, nearing record of the country’s worst outbreak - AP News

What the report says

The Associated Press reported that Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak has reached 3,262 confirmed cases, according to an overnight update from the country’s Ministry of Health. The outbreak, centered in eastern Ituri province, has caused 1,437 deaths and is approaching the scale of Congo’s 2018-2020 outbreak, which remains the country’s largest recorded Ebola emergency.

AP said aid groups are warning about the outbreak’s rapid pace: in roughly 10 weeks, it has nearly matched the case total of the earlier two-year crisis, which recorded more than 3,400 cases and over 2,200 deaths, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures cited in the report. The current outbreak was declared on May 15 and involves the Bundibugyo virus, for which AP reported there are no approved vaccines or treatments.

Response efforts have been complicated by insecurity in eastern Congo, including rebel violence, community attacks on responders and health worker strikes over unpaid wages. AP reported protests by health and frontline workers at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, and said some affected communities have become hard to reach or were reportedly left without responders because of safety concerns.

The report also noted major epidemiological challenges, including the fact that patient zero has not been identified and that conflict-related displacement and illegal mining have made contact tracing difficult. AP said Uganda has declared its separate outbreak over after discharging its last patient in mid-June; Ugandan authorities have said their cases were imported from Congo.