The Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is growing “exponentially”, with more than 2,500 deaths recorded and half of them occurring in the last 20 days, the UN’s senior coordinator on the disease said on Friday.
The outbreak is already the biggest in the country’s history and is spreading faster than any previous outbreak of the deadly virus.
According to the latest figures, the virus is “growing exponentially”, Julien Harneis told reporters in Geneva from Bunia, the epicentre of the outbreak.
He said more than 2,500 people had died in the last three months, “and half of those in the last 20 days”.
“The epidemic is spreading widely. It’s now covering an area that is bigger than France.... It is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,” he said.
The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak is thought to have been spreading for several weeks before it was officially declared on May 15.
It has hit regions in the north and east where the state’s presence is weak, health infrastructure is lacking and myriad armed groups have operated for decades.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also cautioned on Friday that the outbreak was spreading “at an alarming rate”.
“This epidemic continues to spread, moving faster than the response can keep up,” MSF president Javid Abdelmoneim said in a statement.
Harneis stressed the need to step up the response, which has faced criticism over its slow pace and poor organisation and has also been hampered by mistrust among the population.
Cases have so far been reported in six DRC provinces, including areas near the border with South Sudan, as well as in neighbouring Uganda.
Uganda, which recorded two deaths among 20 Ebola cases, declared itself free of the virus last month.
There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo virus strain behind the current outbreak, although several trials are under way.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the DRC would receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which has proved effective against the more common Zaire strain.
Earlier this month, WHO vaccine experts recommended a full-scale human trial of Ervebo, the only existing approved Ebola vaccine, to determine whether it offers cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain.
Early data, particularly from animal trials, have shown that it may offer some protection against Bundibugyo. However, “it is not yet known whether Ervebo is protective against the Bundibugyo virus in humans”, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Friday.
Containing the virus, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic fever, has been complicated by a multitude of other challenges.
Harneis highlighted widespread insecurity and the weak health system in eastern DRC.
“The law and order is undermined, and the basic services, particularly health, have been fragmented,” he said, describing the operating conditions as “brutal”.
Some 160 healthcare workers have fallen ill with Ebola since the start of the outbreak, including 43 who have died from the virus, he said. He also pointed to repeated attacks on ambulances and other frontline workers.
Harneis also highlighted the barely functioning banking system, which has made it difficult to pay those working on the outbreak response, while international funding cuts have reduced the capacity of humanitarian organisations by a third.
He called for greater international support.
“If we provide more staffing, if we get more resources into remote areas across ... the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, within months we can slow the transmission and move to stopping it,” Harneis said.
“If we do not, ... then this epidemic will become more deadly. It will spread wider and risks spreading into neighbouring countries.”