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Confirmed Ebola cases in Congo outbreak exceed 1,000, authorities say
Confirmed cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo have reached 1,003, including 254 deaths, officials said, as tracing those who had been in contact with patients remains a major challenge.
A total of 100 people have recovered in the outbreak concentrated in the Ituri province since it was declared on May 15, Congo's Ministry of Health said Sunday. At least 365 patients are in hospitals or in isolation, it said.
The Ebola outbreak was the worst ever in its first month. It was caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccines or treatment. Officials admit there could be far more cases they still don't know about and that the peak of the outbreak is still ahead.
Confirmed cases in the eastern Congo Ebola outbreak have reached 1,003, including 254 deaths, officials say.
Contact tracing remains a key issue for local authorities, who have only achieved a 55 per cent coverage rate, the ministry said.
"If you want to control an outbreak, especially Ebola outbreak, you must know the index case. We don't have confidence on when this outbreak started," Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press last week.
That's partly because eastern Congo is also battling ongoing violence from rebels. In Ituri, attacks by the Islamic State-backed Allied Democratic Force have cut off access to many villages and forced people to flee their homes.
The speed of its spread across three provinces of eastern Congo has prompted warnings from African health experts that the outbreak could eventually surpass the epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa from 2014 to 2016.
So far, nearly a fifth of confirmed cases have been children, according to preliminary data from the UN children's agency UNICEF.
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