Congo’s Ebola gains falter as transmission worsens in North Kivu

Ebola cases have stopped declining in Democratic Republic of Congo, with worsening transmission in North Kivu province eroding gains in the outbreak’s original epicentre.

Weekly totals of confirmed infections and deaths increased for the third straight week after falling to a low about a month ago, government data show. On Saturday, 97 new cases were reported — the most since October 3 — including 30 people who had already died in their communities, the National Institute of Public Health said in its most recent report.

North Kivu reported 48 infections, exceeding the 42 in Ituri province, where the outbreak was declared more than five months ago. Almost half of the infections and deaths recorded in the six days through October 18 occurred outside Ituri.

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Failure to bring transmission down increases the risk of further spread beyond Congo. Kenya has reported eight cases linked to an infected traveller from Congo, including three health workers, prompting countries across the region to strengthen surveillance and border screening.

The renewed increase in cases in Congo follows what the International Organisation for Migration described Monday as “encouraging improvements” in several measures of the outbreak. Limited treatment capacity and difficulties getting suspected patients into care continued to hamper the response, the agency said.

The pressure is particularly acute in North Kivu, where beds for suspected cases were almost full and one in five hospitalised patients was being treated outside designated Ebola facilities.

In the city of Beni, 13 of 18 newly confirmed cases were people who had already died in the community. Response teams were attacked in two areas, while 22 homes identified for Ebola decontamination had yet to be disinfected.

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Congo has recorded 9 552 confirmed infections and 4 602 deaths since the outbreak began, according to the institute.

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