The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to another health zone in the country’s east, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, while health officials in Kenya continue tracing everyone who came into contact with a man who died of the disease in Nairobi last week. The WHO’s latest figures, as of October 6, show 8,728 confirmed cases and 4,205 confirmed deaths in Congo, a fatality rate of about 48 per cent.
A new zone in North Kivu
In an October 8 update, the WHO said Alimbongo health zone in North Kivu province had recorded cases for the first time, with four confirmed infections and two deaths there. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, has now reached 64 health zones in seven provinces. Ituri province still has the most cases overall, but North Kivu is accounting for a growing share of new ones.
Nationally, the WHO said transmission remains intense but uneven, slowing in some areas and growing in others. New weekly cases rose slightly over the past three weeks, from 475 to 487. Some 2,269 people have recovered.
Treatment centres under strain
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said North Kivu now accounts for nearly 40 per cent of newly confirmed cases, up from 24 per cent at the end of August. As of September 28, about a third of confirmed patients were being treated in ordinary health facilities because dedicated Ebola centres did not have enough beds, the charity said, warning that this raises the risk of infection among other patients and health workers.
For weeks, treatment capacity has stretched to its limit.
Stephanie Hoffmann, coordinator of MSF’s Ebola treatment centre in Butembo
Community leaders in Beni and Butembo say rumours, mistrust and attacks on response workers are making the job harder. The WHO said teams were following up 80.4 per cent of the 29,535 identified contacts as of October 4, short of the 85 per cent target.
How the virus reached Nairobi
Kenya confirmed its first imported case on October 6. According to the Kenyan health ministry and the WHO, the patient was a Kenyan citizen living in Congo who had been ill for about a month and was treated at several hospitals there. He travelled by road to Kampala in Uganda and flew to Nairobi, arriving on October 3. He was isolated in hospital, tested positive and died on the night of October 5.
Kenyan officials identified 28 contacts, including relatives and health workers, and began tracing 23 passengers and four crew members from his flight. A suspected case in Wajir County later tested negative, the county governor said. Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya has noted that the man passed through several Congolese cities, drove into Uganda and flew to Kenya without his illness being picked up.
Why it matters
Kenya is the fourth country to confirm Bundibugyo virus disease, after Congo, Uganda and a travel-related case in France in June, according to the WHO. There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for Bundibugyo, though trials are under way. That leaves early detection, isolation and contact tracing as the main tools to stop it. Congo’s 2018 to 2020 outbreak, caused by a different Ebola species, killed nearly 2,300 people.
