The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Tuesday, as the number of cases in the country surpassed the 5,000 mark.
Speaking at an emergency meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the international community to support efforts to curb the disease, which has already killed more than 2,320 people. He bluntly admitted: "We have to be honest: the outbreak is still far from being under control. It has had a head start, and we are still running behind."
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC and the most severe in the country's history, surpassing the death toll of the 2018–2020 period. The outbreak is particularly concerning because no vaccine or treatment has been approved for the Bundibugyo virus strain causing this epidemic.
Response efforts have been hampered by conflict in the mineral-rich nation, as well as misinformation, public distrust of health workers, and cultural practices.
Tedros warned that the disease is spreading at an "unprecedented rate" and that the locations of many deaths indicate undetected chains of transmission. According to him, the outbreak will only end when all these chains are found and broken.
WHO's Dr. Thierno Balde said motorbike drivers are now a primary focus of response efforts, as they are among the hardest hit due to their work transporting patients and bodies. The WHO is setting up hand-washing stations and providing disinfectants, while also recruiting them as surveillance and rapid-response workers.
The outbreak was declared on May 17, but gene sequencing shows the virus had been spreading for three months earlier, in February. The first volunteer was given a trial vaccine for this Ebola strain in the UK last month. Hundreds of thousands of doses produced by scientists at the University of Oxford were manufactured in India, ready for use if trials succeed.
