The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains in a “very active” phase and has yet to peak, health authorities said Thursday.
In Bunia, the capital of the eastern Ituri Province and the epicenter of the outbreak, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the steady rise in reported cases partly reflected expanded community surveillance rather than a sudden worsening of transmission.
“When many resources are mobilized, especially community health workers who go to find patients in the community, the number of cases will indeed increase,” he said. “But this increase also gives us information about the real situation in the community.”
According to epidemiological data released late Thursday, the DRC has reported 1,792 confirmed cases, including 625 deaths and 295 recoveries. A total of 764 patients are currently in isolation or receiving hospital care.
Kamba said it remained too early to predict when infections would plateau because health officials were still identifying previously undetected cases, while population mobility and challenges in community engagement continued to complicate containment efforts.
The minister also warned that infected patients from Ituri had carried the virus into neighboring areas. He said imported cases had been detected in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province, and in Wamba in Haut-Uele Province, expanding the response perimeter.
DRC health authorities said investigations into the reported cases in Tshopo, a major economic and transport hub in northeastern Congo, were continuing. Several health experts told Xinhua that the spread of the outbreak into new provinces has raised concerns about wider geographic spread.
Meanwhile, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) provided new details on therapeutic research against the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, the strain driving the current outbreak.
Mosoka Fallah, an Africa CDC official, said a clinical trial launched on July 2 is evaluating the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral remdesivir, both individually and in combination. The trial, which began at one treatment center, is expected to expand to additional sites as enrollment increases.
Fallah added that a separate prophylaxis trial evaluating obeldesivir, an orally administered broad-spectrum antiviral drug, among about 800 high-risk contacts is expected to begin next week.
