DRC Ebola epidemic: Second largest on record, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the second-biggest ever recorded and is spreading faster than any previous outbreak.

The outbreak is currently on track to surpass the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014 to 2016, which remains the largest Ebola outbreak on record, the apex health agency disclosed.

Official figures show that the country has confirmed 4,449 Ebola cases with 2,061 deaths recorded across five provinces and 53 health zones.

The WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the disclosure in a hybrid press conference, held on Wednesday.

He said about 90 per cent of all cases and 80 per cent of deaths are concentrated in Ituri province, where sustained transmission is being reported in Bunia, Rwampara, Nizi and Lita.

Dr Ghebreyesus expressed concern over the high proportion of deaths occurring in communities rather than treatment units, particularly among people who were not on known contact lists.

He said the pattern suggested that there are still unidentified chains of transmission, stressing that the outbreak cannot be stopped until all transmission chains are identified and broken.

According to him, most transmission occurs when patients develop late-stage disease without receiving treatment or when bodies are handled after death. It therefore identified early clinical care and safe and dignified burials as critical measures for interrupting transmission.

The WHO DG also stressed that the success of these measures depends heavily on the trust and cooperation of affected communities. It called for stronger community engagement and ownership as essential components of the response.

Under the leadership of the DRC government, the response is being scaled up, with interruption of transmission identified as the primary objective. Surveillance remains the major operational challenge, with efforts underway to strengthen community-based surveillance and improve contact tracing.

The WHO DG said it was working with partners to mobilise resources to bring suspected cases into care and achieve the 95 per cent contact-tracing target required to interrupt transmission. Current contact tracing coverage stands at about 80 per cent.

The apex global health agency is also tripling treatment capacity, with a target of establishing 3,000 beds within 12 weeks. In addition, it said three health workers would need to be recruited and trained for every patient, requiring thousands of additional healthcare workers.

Despite the challenges, Dr Ghebreyesus said progress had been made, including the training of more than 21,000 community health workers. Treatment centres, safe burial teams, laboratories and community engagement structures are also operating across affected provinces, while 886 patients have recovered. The organisation further disclosed that vaccine and treatment research is advancing, with two vaccines specifically targeting Bundibugyo virus entering Phase I safety trials in humans.