New Ebola outbreak in Congo 'running into headwinds', says WHO

Ebola is spreading rapidly through northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, next to one of the most fragile states in the world, the Central African Republic, according to the World Health Organisation.

On Thursday, the WHO said that 56 cases of the deadly Ebola virus had been confirmed in Congo’s Équateur province since authorities announced the new outbreak there on June 1.

So far, a at least 20 people have died of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever and there are probably more unconfirmed cases in the region.

The virus is now spreading across a large region which borders both the Republic of Congo and the war-torn Central African Republic and there are fears that the outbreak could spread into both countries through migrational communities.

Équateur region saw another Ebola outbreak in 2018 which was successfully contained. Health workers say the new outbreak has now surpassed the total number recorded cases there were two years ago. 

“The current Ebola outbreak is running into headwinds because cases are scattered across remote areas in dense rain forests. This makes for a costly response as ensuring that responders and supplies reach affected populations is extremely challenging,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, on Thursday.

The news comes after the second most deadly Ebola outbreak in history, some 600 miles southeast of Équateur province in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces near the border with Uganda, was declared over late last month. That epidemic saw 3,463 confirmed and probable cases and 2,277 deaths over two years.

Efforts to combat the epidemic in the east were hamstrung by horrific fighting between militias and a widespread public suspicion of health workers.

The current cases in Équateur are thought to be completely separate from the easterly outbreak and mark the eleventh Ebola outbreak in the country since the disease was first identified in 1976.

“I would caution everyone that while the numbers in this event are low, again in the era of COVID it is very important that we do not take our eyes off these other emerging diseases. [W]e saw in North Kivu and other previous outbreaks of Ebola that these can get out of control very easily,” Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergencies expert, said earlier this week. 

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