KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed 27 new Ebola cases, according to a report released late on Sunday, warning that protective measures need to be scaled up quickly.
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Congo’s National Institute for Public Health (INSP) said the country now has 515 confirmed Ebola cases, following the 27 new infections reported within a 24-hour period.
The total number of confirmed deaths is now 91.
More than 94% of the recorded cases are in Ituri, a province in eastern Congo plagued by some of the country’s most violent armed groups, such as the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, which is affiliated with the Islamic State. The threat posed by these armed groups is making the health response much more complicated. But Ituri’s health system is also dire, and it’s hard to get around given the few paved roads in the province.
As aid workers struggle amid trying circumstances, European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib visited Ituri for several hours on Sunday to show support to people on the ground.
“We need to be able to provide diagnoses more quickly,” she told reporters, in Congo’s national language, French.
She added that treatment outcomes were better for those who sought medical help early. “Many patients arrive with situations that are already dire, so it’s much harder to save them.” On Friday, Congolese health authorities had also warned of “rapid community spread” of the disease after discovering 71 new cases of Ebola.
Since the government first declared an outbreak on May 15, the disease has spread to 17 out of 36 health zones in Ituri. The provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, both in eastern Congo, have also recorded cases.
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There are also confirmed cases in Uganda, a neighboring country that shares a long land border with Ituri — although the scale of the outbreak there is much smaller. Ugandan health authorities have so far recorded 19 Ebola cases.
With the virus still spreading quickly, Congo reimposed travel restrictions to and from Ituri’s capital city, Bunia, on Saturday, according to an official Congolese aviation notice consulted by NPR. The government has not publicly announced the reasons behind the decision. However, there are fears that the outbreak in eastern Congo is much larger than the official figures suggest.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modeled how far the virus could spread in a new study published on Friday. According to some scenarios, the ongoing outbreak in Congo could rival the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic. That outbreak was the worst in recorded history, with more than 28,000 reported cases and about 11,300 deaths. For example, the U.S. CDC projected that if only 20% of patients during the current outbreak in Congo are isolated, there is a 65% chance of case numbers exceeding 20,000 within just three months.
Despite rising international alarm, Congo’s government insists that the situation is under control. It has repeatedly been pointed out that the country successfully overcame 16 previous Ebola outbreaks. Some patients have also begun to recover, offering a glimmer of hope.
Congolese health authorities said this weekend that three patients had left the hospital, with the total number of recovered patients in the country rising to 12.
And on Saturday, American doctor Peter Stafford — who contracted Ebola in eastern Congo and was evacuated for treatment in Germany — was cleared to leave quarantine after repeatedly testing negative for the disease.
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