Ebola outruns containment as Congo faces ‘catastrophic collision’ of disease and war

GENEVA – Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day.

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as at May 21, according to the Health Ministry.

Yet, health workers were able to follow up with only 342 contacts that day – about 21 per cent of the total under monitoring – according to ministry data released on May 22.

The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself, even as governments and international agencies ramp up emergency measures after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern on May 17.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on May 27 that the conflict raging in eastern DRC is dramatically complicating efforts to rein in the outbreak, as he sought an immediate ceasefire.

“Eastern DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response,” Dr Tedros said on social media platform X.

The outbreak has now spread across three provinces, including South Kivu, where officials confirmed a case this week near Bukavu, a major city near Congo’s border with Rwanda.

Uganda confirmed on May 23 three additional Ebola cases tied to earlier infections, including a health worker, as the authorities struggle to contain regional spread.

The epidemic is unfolding in “one of the most challenging operational environments possible”, the WHO’s emergency committee said on May 22.

Congo stretches across an area about a quarter the size of the continental US. Large parts of the east are accessible only by rough roads, motorcycles or footpaths winding through forests and mountains.

Armed groups control significant territory. Millions of people have been displaced by conflict.

Front-line workers ‘risking everything’

Dr Tedros lamented that clashes were “driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors”.

“Front-line workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,” he warned.

“We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” he insisted.

“We urge all warring parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to contain this outbreak. To allow us safe and sustained access for medical teams,” he said. “We plea to prioritise human survival above everything else.”

Tensions are already surfacing around containment measures.

Relatives of a man who died at Rwampara Hospital near Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, where the outbreak was first detected, clashed with health workers after the authorities refused to release the body for burial because of infection risks, according to local media reports.

Ebola treatment tents run by the aid group Alima were set on fire during the unrest, and six patients fled the facility, including three confirmed Ebola cases, according to reports from the area.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or antibody treatment. The virus appears to have circulated undetected for months in Ituri province before the authorities recognised what they were dealing with.

Health officials are now trying to track thousands of people who may have been exposed as infections spread through remote mining areas and urban centres, including Bunia and Goma, cities with populations approaching 700,000 and 860,000, respectively. BLOOMBERG, AFP