According to the latest data published by the country's official health authorities on Friday, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reached 3532, with 1556 deaths recorded.
The disease outbreak has spread to five eastern provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Nord-Ubangi, and Tshopo. Currently, 807 patients are in isolation or under hospital observation, and 626 people have recovered.
The Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kasayi, warned of growing operational difficulties hindering the response to the outbreak in the DRC, while noting Uganda's successful efforts in containing the disease.
During an online press briefing on Thursday evening, Kasayi stated that the ongoing outbreak is 'the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded' and now ranks second in terms of total confirmed cases.
Kasayi expressed concern over critical limitations impeding response efforts in the DRC. He cited limited contact tracing capabilities, the rise in cases and deaths within communities, increased lethality, and insufficient bed capacity. Furthermore, he mentioned persistent funding shortages, instability, unsafe burial practices, and cases of infection and death among healthcare workers as serious obstacles to localizing the outbreak.
Despite existing challenges, Africa CDC highlighted successes in several aspects of the response, including the improvement of laboratory diagnostic capacity. Currently, 19 laboratories are actively conducting testing, which is significantly more than the two laboratories operating at the start of the outbreak, with a daily testing throughput exceeding 3000 samples.
