Ebola im Kongo: Schon mehr als 2.000 Ebola-Tote im Kongo

Ebola's deadly grip has tightened in Congo, with over 2,000 fatalities reported just three months after the outbreak was first announced. The disease, which is transmitted through bodily fluids and causes fever, diarrhea, and bleeding, has sickened 4,381 individuals during this period. Currently, 704 people are being treated in isolation facilities, and the death rate stands at 45.9 percent.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, director of Africa CDC, warned that the number of cases and deaths in the first twelve weeks of the outbreak is eight to six times higher than in the same period of the previous deadliest Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Meanwhile, while the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in Congo resulted in 3,400 cases, the current outbreak has seen around 4,000 patients emerge in merely twelve weeks.

This outbreak is particularly difficult to contain as there is no specific vaccine or therapy for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus. Efforts are underway to test two antiviral therapies and to determine if the virus has mutated. Contact tracing is proving challenging, as roughly 86 percent of new Ebola cases are not linked to contacts of confirmed cases.

Dr. Kaseya expressed concern that many cases may be going unreported. However, for the outbreak to be contained, about 95 percent of Ebola patients' contacts need to be traced, according to the World Health Organization. The epicenter of the outbreak is the troubled Ituri province in northeastern Congo, where insecurity and a large number of internally displaced people living in cramped conditions exacerbate the situation.

Other provinces, North and South Kivu, also affected by rebels and their militia allies, present further complications.