Six months of the Ebola epidemic: they warn that it may become an outbreak that affects all of Africa

BarcelonaThe Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, warned this Sunday that the humanitarian crisis, insecurity, and population displacement in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of the Ebola epidemic could lead to “a major continental-scale outbreak”.

This Sunday marks six months since the epidemic was declared in this African country. Nevertheless, deaths and infections continue unchecked, to the point that it is feared they will exceed the figures recorded during the lethal outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. On that occasion, 11,000 people died and 28,000 were infected. The current epidemic already totals 5,505 deaths and 11,254 infections, according to data from Friday from the National Institute of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“When Africa CDC declared the epidemic on May 15, we immediately saw that it was a regional and even continental threat,” Kaseya declared in a press conference this Sunday. Furthermore, referring to the epicenter of the epidemic: “Ituri is a region with insecurity, with a humanitarian crisis, with people living in camps without any basic support and with huge population movement. Furthermore, it is a mining area. This, added to the distrust of the community, could make the outbreak turn into a major continental-level outbreak,” he warned.

48.9% lethality

According to data from this control and prevention body, 80% of new infections in the Democratic Republic of Congo are detected outside of health surveillance systems, and around 65% of patients die at home, without being admitted to a specialized treatment center. The outbreak's mortality rate is 48.9%.

This is the seventeenth Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which adds to the more than thirty outbreaks that have affected, mainly, the African continent in recent decades. The variant responsible for the current epidemic is Bundibugyo, which this time presents higher mortality rates than had been observed in other outbreaks caused by the same strain.

The only vaccine currently available in the field is Ervebo, which was already used during the 2021 Ebola outbreak, caused by a different variant than the current one. This vaccine was not specifically created for the Bundibugyo variant and, consequently, it is unknown whether it is actually effective enough.