Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Spreads to New Regions
Kinshasa (ANTARA) - The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains in a ‘very active’ phase and has yet to reach its peak, health authorities said on Thursday (9/7).
In Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province in eastern DR Congo and the epicentre of the outbreak, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the steady rise in reported cases partly reflects expanded community surveillance rather than a sudden deterioration in transmission.
‘When a lot of resources are mobilised, especially public health workers going out to look for patients within communities, the number of cases will indeed increase,’ he said. ‘However, this rise also gives us information about the true situation on the ground.’
According to epidemiological data released on Thursday evening local time, DR Congo has reported 1,792 confirmed cases, including 625 deaths and 295 patients who have recovered. Some 764 patients are currently in isolation or receiving hospital care.
Kamba said it was still too early to predict when infections would subside, as health workers continue to identify previously undetected cases, whilst population mobility and challenges in community engagement continue to complicate containment efforts.
The minister also warned that patients infected in Ituri have carried the virus to neighbouring areas. He said imported cases have been detected in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province, and in Wamba in Haut-Uele Province, widening the scope of the response.
Health authorities in DR Congo said investigations into the cases reported in Tshopo, a major economic and transport hub in the country’s north-east, are still under way. Several health experts told Xinhua that the spread of the outbreak to new provinces has raised concerns about broader geographical transmission.
Meanwhile, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has provided new details on therapeutic research for the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, the strain driving the current outbreak.
Mosoka Fallah, an Africa CDC official, said a clinical trial launched on 2 July is evaluating the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir, both individually and in combination. The trial, which began at a single treatment centre, is expected to expand to additional sites as enrolment increases.
Fallah added that a separate prophylaxis trial evaluating obeldesivir, a broad-spectrum oral antiviral, among roughly 800 high-risk contacts is expected to begin next week.