Ebola infections top 7,000 in Congo as virus spreads to new province

DAKAR — The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Democratic Republic of Congo has passed 7,000, with the virus spreading to a new province, government data showed on Friday.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, became the largest and deadliest in Congo’s history after surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic.

It is now second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected over 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Government figures showed late on Friday that the death toll had risen to 3,398, while confirmed cases reached 7,022 across seven provinces.

Officials said earlier an Ebola case had been detected in South Ubangi province, located in the northwest of the country, far from the epicenter of the outbreak.

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They said a 23-year-old man who had died on Tuesday tested positive for the Bundibugyo species.

He left South Kivu province in eastern Congo on July 10 and spent time abroad before re-entering Congo and arriving in South Ubangi, which borders Congo Republic and Central African Republic.

“Contact tracing for the first confirmed case in South Ubangi province is underway,” Congo’s public health institute said in its latest situation report.

The World Health Organization has said shortages of trained staff, operational partners and funding are causing a bottleneck in efforts ‌to expand the Ebola response as the outbreak spreads geographically.

WHO technical officer Luca Fontana said nearly 1,400 treatment beds had already been established across 59 treatment centers, one of the fastest scale-ups he said he had witnessed, including during the 2014 to 2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic.

“Yet, despite this extraordinary effort, we estimate that another 1,600 beds will be required,” he said.

WHO estimates around three health workers are needed for each Ebola patient bed, meaning around 9,000 staff would be required for the planned capacity of 3,000 beds.

That would require the recruitment and training of roughly 5,000 additional health workers.

“Every time a healthcare worker walks inside the patients’ area, wearing the full gear, the personal protective equipment, it’s approximately $25. We have hundreds of staff walking inside the patients’ area every single day,” Fontana said.

Compounding the challenge, the pool of international organizations capable of running Ebola treatment centers is limited, partly due to the impact of broader global donor funding cuts, Fontana said.

“Where are all the organizations that were running treatment centers in West Africa outbreaks in 2014 to ’16? Why they are not currently in the field to support this current response is probably because of lack of resources, and this is probably one of the bottlenecks now that can delay the scale-up plan,” he said.

It costs approximately $500,000 to run a treatment center of 50 beds, according to WHO estimates.

WHO estimates that only five or six major organizations have the expertise and capacity to set up and operate a treatment center for Ebola and that they risk becoming tied up managing existing centers unless other partners step in to take over facilities that are already running smoothly, he said.

In some cases, Congo’s Health Ministry is assuming responsibility for centers opened at the start of the outbreak, but Fontana warned that its capacity would also eventually be stretched.

“So more actors in the field will be needed to ensure that the most experienced partners can move to the front line again,” he said.

The WHO has urged donors to increase funding and accelerate contributions to fund the Congolese government-led Ebola response plan of $1.3 billion over the next six months.

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