The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become the fastest-growing on record and is now killing one person every 30 minutes, senior United Nations (UN) officials have warned.
Speaking after an emergency meeting of the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher cautioned that the virus is currently outrunning the international response and urged global partners to step up support immediately.
Declared on May 15, the Ebola Bundibugyo strain outbreak has infected over 4 660 people and claimed more than 2 180 lives, representing a case fatality rate of nearly 47%. In response to the escalating crisis, the UN has allocated an additional $30.5 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, bringing the total released to the country and its neighbours to over $54 million.
Ituri province remains the heart of the epidemic, accounting for more than 3 400 recorded cases, though the virus has now spread across six of the DRC’s 26 provinces and into neighbouring Uganda, which has reported 20 cases. The health emergency is further complicated by ongoing conflict in North and South Kivu between government forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, which has displaced millions and left over 2.6 million people in the region severely malnourished.
To halt transmission, the World Food Programme is expanding hot meal distribution at treatment centres across affected provinces.
Meanwhile, the UN has outlined an urgent operational scale-up that includes doubling community burial teams, tripling clinical treatment capacity, improving contact tracing, and expanding essential water and sanitation services to vulnerable populations.
–ChannelAfrica/UN–
