Ebola responders grapple with widening outbreak in DR Congo

The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground. 

Key points

• 7,200 Ebola cases and nearly 3,500 deaths reported 
• Outbreak spreading across an area covering two time zones 
• Insecurity, poor roads and funding gaps are hampering response 
• Weekly cases are doubling in parts of North Kivu

“If we don’t have the resources, the epidemic will come back…it remains a deadly and massive epidemic,” stressed Julien Harneis, UN Special Ebola Coordinator.

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Latest data from 12 September indicates 7,200 reported cases of Ebola and close to 3,500 deaths across 62 health zones, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The virus is now present in seven provinces “covering a very vast geographic area”, said Dr Olivier le Polain, Unit Head for Epidemiology and Analytics for Response at WHO. 

“Although the response has been unprecedented in its scale, the epidemic continues to expand.”

In partnership with the authorities, UN agencies and partners have been assisting in tackling the Ebola Bundibugyo virus outbreak since the emergency was declared in mid-May.

But there are immense challenges involved in working in resource-rich regions where populations have experienced decades of violent insecurity and development setbacks.

Hard to reach

“[In] many areas, the roads are massive potholes – not even potholes – trucks disappear into the mud; [in] many areas, the access, even by small plane, is complicated. And then there’s violence against the response,” explained Mr. Harneis. 

“We have cases in Bunia, in Ituri and in the far other end of the country in Sud-Ubangi, that is like a distance from Geneva to Dublin.”

The veteran aid coordinator warned that the $1.3 billion humanitarian response is only 49 per cent funded, while Ebola “makes things much worse for all Congolese, “from worsening hunger levels to falling attendance at health centres, increases in maternal mortality” and interrupted treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.

“We’ve done a lot of positive work through the scaling up bed capacity, but unless we get more specialized medical care, we will eventually come to a plateau,” Mr. Harneis continued, stressing the need for countries to deploy international emergency medical teams immediately.

The ‘live enemy’

“If you don’t provide the care, if you don’t finance the care, if you don’t provide the technical resources, then Ebola is a live enemy and will come back at us,” he warned, adding that another $1 billion will be needed to sustain the response beyond the first six months. 

“There’s been some indication from Member States that they might be prepared to send those teams, but we need a far greater support and dedication of those resources.”

The Ebola outbreak continues to unfold in areas of great humanitarian need and will take “many, many months to get this outbreak under control fully”, insisted WHO’s Dr le Polain. 

The epidemiologist described how infections were beginning to decrease in some areas but rise “exponentially” in others, including North Kivu, where the number of weekly cases has now doubled, from about 100 to 200 cases. “We’re worried about particularly Butembo and Katwa”, a major axis in the northern part of North Kivu, the WHO official explained.