The number of confirmed cases of Ebola infection in Congo has risen to 782, with 181 deaths, the Congolese Ministry of Health said in a statement on the X social media platform on Sunday evening.
However, the number of cases in Congo is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after its beginning was suspected, and the contact tracing coverage rate is 56%, a sharp decline from last week.
The recent Ebola outbreak was caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus, which has been responsible for most of the past 16 outbreaks in Congo.
The ministry said 56 people have recovered, and the current fatality rate for the outbreak is 23%.
The outbreak is centered in the Ituri province of eastern Congo, which accounts for more than 90% of cases. Cases were also recorded in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and spread across the border into Uganda.
Nearly a million people have been displaced by the conflict in Ituri, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast region, which includes dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.
It is also difficult to find the thousands of artisanal miners who regularly move between remote sites in the mineral-rich region.
Attacks on health workers by angry residents, suspicions among some locals, and armed conflict in hot spots continue to challenge efforts to stop the outbreak.
Last month, US officials said Washington planned to send Americans exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them home. They said the center will be located at Laikipia Air Base with a capacity of 50 quarantine beds. The move led to protests over plans to build an Ebola quarantine centre, which were later blocked by the courts.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
