Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for a massive expansion of the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warning that the disease is spreading faster than health authorities can contain it.
Trish Newport, an MSF emergency coordinator, said Monday that the outbreak in eastern DRC had expanded rapidly, overwhelming the capacity of health authorities and response teams.
“We should be able to circumscribe the outbreak and carry out preventative activities all around where the outbreak has not yet started,” Newport said, stressing the need to ensure that health zones and facilities are prepared to respond before the virus reaches them.
“But we don’t have the capacity today,” she added.
According to government data released overnight into Monday, the outbreak has recorded 4,945 cases, including 2,325 deaths. The latest figures showed 101 new cases and 33 deaths reported within 24 hours.
Newport described the pace and scale of transmission as unprecedented compared with previous outbreaks in the country.
“Here, the speed and growth and spread of this outbreak is much, much bigger. It’s much faster and spreads much bigger than the outbreak in 2014 or the outbreak in 2018. This is extremely concerning,” she said.
The outbreak is Congo’s 17th and largest Ebola outbreak and has already surpassed the death toll recorded during the country’s 2018–2020 outbreak, which killed 2,299 people out of 3,481 reported cases.
More than 1,000 patients have recovered, while about 730 others remain in hospitals or isolation centres.
The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak could surpass the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which remains the deadliest recorded Ebola outbreak, with more than 11,000 deaths.
Newport also identified community engagement as one of the biggest challenges facing the response, urging greater public awareness of Ebola symptoms and the steps people should take when they become ill.
She said the outbreak was taking a devastating toll on families and communities.
“This outbreak is horrible. It’s horrible for families. We see family members that come in who have had 15 people in their family die,” Newport said.
“We rapidly need to scale up to be able to prevent more deaths from happening, more families and communities from being impacted,” she added.
