Congo’s Ebola deaths rise to 100 out of 550 cases

At least 100 people have died from Ebola less than a month after authorities declared an outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo, authorities said.

Attacks on health workers from angry residents, scepticism among some locals and armed conflict in hot spots continue to challenge efforts to stop the outbreak declared on May 15.

Out of the 550 cases of the disease confirmed as of Sunday, there have been 101 deaths and 19 recoveries, according to the latest situation report late Monday.

The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and have spread across the border to Uganda.

The number of cases in Congo is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed weeks late, and the response has been challenging due to the lack of an approved vaccine or treatment.

The latest Ebola disease outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which does not have an approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the “Zaire virus,” another name for the Ebola virus, responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

The rapid increase in the number of cases is in part due to the scale-up of diagnostic capacities, enabling testing of the backlog of previously collected samples, authorities said.

Frontline health workers, with little pay or rest, have been attacked multiple times by angry residents and have not been able to reach some communities due to conflict involving armed rebel groups.

Eastern Congo has for years seen attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some of them with links to foreign countries or to the extremist Islamic State group.

Conflict is “constraining access for the response, disrupting surveillance and response activities, and increasing the risk of undetected transmission,” the World Health Organisation said Monday. “Such incidents underline the challenges of the context and the importance of working closely with local leaders and communities,” the WHO added.