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The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached 5,515 confirmed cases and 2,642 deaths, according to government figures released on Sunday, with 51 new cases recorded in Ituri and North Kivu provinces.
The case fatality rate has climbed from about 20 percent in early June to nearly 48 percent. Contact tracing improved over the same period, from 30 percent to more than 85 percent. About 160 health workers have been infected and about 45 have died, according to the World Health Organization.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 and is Congo's 17th. The WHO has designated it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, its highest alert level, and the designation also covers Uganda. The virus is the Bundibugyo species, which has no approved vaccine or treatment. The WHO has pledged 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, licensed against a different species, after early animal data suggested it may offer some protection. About 16,250 doses arrived in Congo on Friday.
Responders are working through armed conflict, displacement and heavy population movement, and health teams have been attacked. A crowd in the territory of Aru set fire to an ambulance and damaged two other vehicles on August 17 after a suspected case was reported there. From its first detected case, the outbreak has spread about three times faster than the 2014 to 2016 West Africa epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people.
US entry rules remain tight. Travelers who have been in the DRC within 21 days of departure cannot board commercial flights bound for the United States, including passengers who only stop at a Congolese airport without disembarking. US citizens and nationals arriving from Uganda or South Sudan are rerouted through four airports for public health entry screening: Dulles, Atlanta, Houston Intercontinental and JFK. Screening covers a short questionnaire, a temperature check and enrollment in 21 days of automated CDC symptom reminders. The CDC renewed the underlying order on August 12.
The WHO rates the risk to the global public as low and the risk inside Congo as very high. Uganda and several health zones in Ituri and South Kivu have interrupted transmission. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the response needs to grow two to threefold to reach every affected area.
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