The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has shared news on the fight against the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They also warned that the number of new infections is growing faster than the response efforts.
Wessam Mankoula, who leads the Continental Incident Management Support Team for the Ebola response, shared this information on Thursday during a webinar about the outbreak.
He mentioned that the support team is now active in Uganda. They are coordinating the Ebola response with help from partners across Africa.
Mankoula pointed out that the DRC and Uganda are making progress with a memorandum of understanding to improve Ebola surveillance and response across their borders.
He said that laboratory capacity has increased a lot. Health authorities can now conduct over 2,000 Ebola tests daily in affected areas.
Mankoula also noted that clinical trials for Ebola treatments have started. This is another step forward in improving treatment for those infected.
Despite these advancements, Mankoula reported that confirmed Ebola cases rose by 25 percent in the past week. This has raised worries about ongoing transmission.
He mentioned that treatment centres are under heavy strain, with bed occupancy hitting 95 percent in many facilities.
Contact tracing is still not good enough. Only seven contacts are identified for every confirmed case, which is much lower than the target. Infections among health workers are also a big challenge.
Mankoula described Uganda’s response as positive. He said the country has shown that Ebola can be controlled with good surveillance and quick action.
He noted that Uganda has reported 20 Ebola cases, most linked to imported infections. But the country quickly managed to control the spread.
Currently, Uganda has just one patient receiving treatment after two deaths and 17 recoveries.
Mankoula added that Uganda has successfully traced all contacts, which has helped stop further spread of the virus.
He emphasized that early detection, quick isolation, and effective contact tracing are key to controlling Ebola outbreaks.
On the other hand, Mankoula said the DRC has reported 1,759 confirmed Ebola cases as of July 7. This includes 353 new infections from the past week.
The outbreak has claimed 600 lives, leading to a case fatality rate of about 34 percent.
Among healthcare workers, there have been 112 infections, and 35 frontline workers have died during this response.
Mankoula described the current outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in its first six weeks.
He stated that the virus is spreading faster than the response measures. The effective reproduction number is estimated at 1.4.
“This means the outbreak is still progressing. Currently, the estimated reproduction number is 1.4, meaning every 10 infected individuals are expected to pass the virus to around 14 others,” he explained.
The outbreak has affected 37 health zones in the DRC, with 94 percent of confirmed cases coming from Ituri Province.
Mankoula mentioned that six health zones have not reported any confirmed cases in the last 21 days, which suggests progress in some areas.
He added that most infections are among people aged 15 to 44 years, with women making up 53 percent of the confirmed cases.
But he said insecurity in North Kivu is still making it hard to respond effectively. This situation is raising fatality rates and limiting access for emergency teams.
Mankoula called for a 50 percent increase in treatment bed capacity, quicker case detection, better community engagement, and ongoing funding to boost the Ebola response.
He also announced plans to send more experts and 4,000 community health workers, while Uganda and the DRC keep working on joint border surveillance based on their agreement.
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