Confirmed Ebola cases top 1,000 in DR Congo as conflict hampers response
The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases, with 1,003 infections and 254 deaths recorded as of June 22, STAT reported . The outbreak, declared May 15 and centered on Ituri province around the city of Bunia, involves the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Armed conflict is the central obstacle to containing it. Attacks by the Islamic State–linked Allied Democratic Forces have cut off villages and forced residents to flee, leaving a mobile population that is hard to track. Contact tracing has reached only about 55 percent, more than 35,000 contacts remain untraced, and the source patient has not been identified. Officials say the peak is still ahead.
The combination of a strain with no medical countermeasures, an active insurgency and some two million displaced people in the affected area raises the risk of wider spread, particularly if the virus reaches crowded displacement camps. Africa CDC has warned the outbreak could become the worst on record.