The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached a seventh province bordering the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, according to local authorities. The acting governor of the northwestern province of South-Ubangi, Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, issued a statement on Friday saying Ebola was detected following laboratory analysis of a suspected case in the province. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, confirmed that a man had tested positive for Ebola. Until now, the Bundibugyo virus, the rare kind of Ebola that caused the current outbreak, had been in six provinces in the country’s east and northeast.
Local transmission has not yet been confirmed in South-Ubangi, meaning it has not been added to the list of provinces officially affected by the epidemic. The outbreak, DRC’s 17th, is already the deadliest and the biggest in the country’s history in terms of case numbers – a milestone reached in late July. As of Wednesday, 6,942 cases and 3,349 deaths have been reported, according to the latest government figures, well above the 2,299 deaths recorded in DRC’s 2018-2020 outbreak of the Zaire Ebola virus, previously the country’s worst on record. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the current outbreak remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak across West Africa, which killed more than 11,325 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Friday’s statement by the South-Ubangi governor’s office said a sample from a patient in the Bulu health district was tested by DRC’s national research institute, and laboratory results found the presence of the Bundibugyo virus. The patient who died in South-Ubangi had developed symptoms in the capital of Tshopo province, Kisangani, where Ebola cases have been reported, after travelling through Rwanda, Uganda and Ituri province in northeastern DRC, Galekwa said. The patient then travelled by boat on the Congo River. “The route taken both by the patient and by the boat exposes the populations” of the provinces of North-Ubangi, Tshopo and Mongala, Galekwa said. “Thirty-eight people have been identified as having been in contact with the patient and have been placed in quarantine,” he said. In recent weeks, new cases and deaths have declined in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicentre, but risen sharply in neighbouring North Kivu and Upper-Uele.
The Bundibugyo variant of Ebola currently has no approved vaccines or treatments. However, several treatments and vaccines are being tested. The outbreak has spread rapidly since it was officially declared on May 15, as weak health infrastructure, the region’s remoteness, and ongoing conflict near DRC’s borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda have hindered efforts to respond to cases.
