African Ebola Cases Surge nearly 40% in a Week, Hundreds Dead

Cases of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have surged by 38% in a week; over 200 people have now been killed in the outbreak.

Just under 900 cases have been reported by the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with most of them concentrated in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

This makes the ongoing outbreak of the Bungibyo strain among the worst in recent history.

Breitbart reports, “Doctors fear the current outbreak will prove to be much larger than the confirmed case totals, because epidemiologists are not certain exactly when it began, and they are struggling to perform contract tracing on the large number of people who came into contact with known Ebola victims.

“Africa CDC epidemiologist Wessam Mankoula said there should be 17,000 to 35,000 contacts for the 894 confirmed cases—but so far only about 4,000 contacts have been traced, or about 15 percent of the total.”

Health organizations are facing a critical shortage of workers and funding to deal with the outbreak.

The Africa CDC estimates it would need five times the staff it currently has in order to keep the outbreak under control.

The International Red Cross warned this week that the peak of the current outbreak has not yet been reached.

As well as lack of resources, mistrust of health workers and ongoing war in the region are exacerbating attempts to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Over two million people have been displaced in the region, with hundreds of thousands living in unsanitary refugee camps.

Movement of refugees is likely to increase the spread, especially to crowded urban regions.

“For refugees and internally displaced people already facing trauma and insecurity and a lack of adequate humanitarian assistance, the outbreak is fueling fear and misinformation, eroding trust in response teams and delaying access to life‑saving care,” the UN’s refugee agency said.