The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns over the high number of Ebola deaths occurring in communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), warning that many patients are dying before they can be detected and taken to treatment centres.
The outbreak has recorded more than 9,000 confirmed cases and over 4,300 deaths, with the virus spreading across seven provinces, according to the report.
Health authorities and emergency responders are facing challenges containing the epidemic, as transmission continues in multiple hotspots.
Dr Catherine Swallwood, incident manager at the WHO in DR Congo, said about 60 per cent of the total deaths were occurring in communities rather than treatment centres.
She added that community deaths accounted for approximately one-third of all new cases recorded in recent weeks, raising concerns about gaps in early detection and access to healthcare.
“Now, over the past few weeks, about one-third of all new cases have still been community deaths. So that means we are not detecting cases while the patients are still alive,” Swallwood said.
In response, the WHO is shifting greater attention towards remote communities and health zones that are difficult to access, where delayed detection is complicating efforts to contain the outbreak.
Swallwood acknowledged the difficulties of maintaining a presence in every affected area but said the organisation was prioritising communities hardest hit by the outbreak.
“It’s very difficult to be everywhere all the time. The strategy now is to really reach out to the communities that are hardest hit and bring our response to them,” she said.
She stressed the need to establish healthcare services and response operations closer to affected populations.
“It is in those communities that people are sick; people are dying. That is where we need to reach out to them to set up services and the response,” she added.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which the overall case fatality rate stands at 48.3 per cent.
No vaccine or treatment has yet received specific approval for the strain, although clinical trials are ongoing.
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