The outbreak has surpassed the death toll of the country’s 2018-2020 outbreak and is the fastest-growing on record, according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who warned last week that ‘the epidemic is killing someone every 30 minutes.’

Outbreak Spreads Rapidly

DR Congo’s Institute of Public Health reported 4,945 confirmed cases as of Sunday, including 101 new cases in the previous 24 hours — the virus has spread to six of the country’s 26 provinces, with over 3,400 cases recorded in Ituri province, where the outbreak was first reported.

Comparatively few cases have been identified outside the country: as of 12 August, 20 cases were confirmed in neighbouring Uganda, while two people were treated in Germany and one case was declared in France.

The World Health Organization has described the pace of the virus’s transmission in DR Congo as ‘exceptional.’ According to Reuters, it took nearly five months for the world’s deadliest outbreak of 2014-2016 in West Africa to reach 1,000 fatalities, whereas the current outbreak reached 2,000 deaths in less than three months.

Challenges in Controlling the Outbreak

This is the 17th Ebola outbreak to emerge in DR Congo since the virus was first discovered 50 years ago; Years of conflict and a highly mobile population have added to the country’s challenges in controlling the spread of the disease.

Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist with Médecins Sans Frontières, said: ‘Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier. Instead, we’re still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community.’

The WHO has said it hopes to reverse the spread of the disease within three months but warned that this means bringing transmission under control and not ending the outbreak entirely. The UN has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Efforts to Develop Treatments and Vaccines

There is currently no approved vaccine available for the Bundibugyo species that has caused the current epidemic, but several are in development, including one based on technology used to develop the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. The UK’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, has given permission for the first human trials of a vaccine for Bundibugyo to go ahead.

The jab is being created by a team from the University of Oxford and three other groups are also developing different vaccines for Bundibugyo; the WHO is also sponsoring a separate clinical trial in DR Congo to see whether two existing antiviral therapies can improve survival rates.

Ebola is a rare but deadly viral disease, and the Bundibugyo species is even rarer, with only two known prior outbreaks. Symptoms of Ebola, which are similar to the flu or malaria, include fever, headache, and tiredness, and can begin suddenly within two to 21 days of infection. As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea can develop, leading to organ failure, but Contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit causes the virus to spread.