The Ebola epidemic that first appeared in eastern Congo back in May has become the fastest-spreading on record. On Monday, Africa CDC, which monitors epidemics across the continent, said 5,376 people have lost their lives. Only four victims died outside Congo: a pair in Kenya and another pair in Uganda.
Congo’s public health institute counts more than 10,400 confirmed infections. In its report of 31 October the share of confirmed patients who died rose above half, to 51.6 per cent. Part of that jump came from bookkeeping rather than new cases: officials reviewing records in Ituri, the province at the centre of the epidemic, added 314 older deaths that had not been counted. Cases have now turned up across eight of the country’s provinces, in 67 separate health districts, making this the worst epidemic the nation has ever seen and the second largest anywhere, behind West Africa’s epidemic of 2013 to 2016.
What makes it so hard to stop is the strain. The culprit here is an unusual species, Bundibugyo, and doctors have neither an approved jab nor a licensed medicine against it. Trials began only recently to see whether Ervebo, the shot that works against the more familiar Zaire strain, offers any protection. Like other forms of Ebola, it spreads through bodily fluids and causes severe bleeding fever.
Cases abroad remain few. Uganda had 20 infections, almost all linked to travel from Congo, and was declared free of the disease in August. Kenya recorded its first ever cases in October, nine in total. Nigeria has one confirmed patient, a Swiss woman who had visited Uganda, while two later suspected cases tested negative.
Washington is tightening travel rules. Starting on Tuesday night, anyone flying into America from abroad has to declare that they spent none of the past three weeks in Congo. The head of the World Health Organization said the outbreak shows why governments should finish the pandemic treaty without delay.
