Ebola: One Death Every 30 Minutes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is claiming one life every 30 minutes, said Tom Fletcher, the UN's humanitarian chief, on Friday. The outbreak—which health authorities are still struggling to contain—has spread to a sixth province, Bas-Uele, in the northeast of the country, the Congolese government confirmed.

The outbreak “is the fastest-spreading on record. [It] is killing one person every 30 minutes,” Tom Fletcher emphasized. “More than 2,000 people have already died. Many more are at risk.”

The deadliest Ebola outbreak the country has ever experienced claimed nearly 2,300 lives among 3,500 reported cases between 2018 and 2020. The current outbreak has claimed more than 2,128 lives out of 4,566 confirmed cases, just three months after it was first reported, according to the latest figures released by Congolese authorities.

“Ebola is gaining ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We cannot let the virus outpace our response,” added Mr. Fletcher in a statement released following an emergency meeting with UN agency officials. He called on the international community to “wake up and take action.”

A Lack of Resources

The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared its 17th Ebola outbreak on May 15. Since then, the health systems in one of the world's poorest countries have been struggling with a general lack of resources to contain it.

“I deployed 20 additional staff members to the front lines today. But this is a wake-up call. We need speed, large-scale resources, and solidarity [to prevent] this virus from gaining even more ground on us,” Mr. Fletcher said.

According to him, the UN has allocated an additional 30.5 million U.S. dollars (41 million CAD) from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the health response. “This amount is in addition to the 24 million U.S. dollars (33 million CAD) previously allocated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and four neighboring countries” to address the Ebola outbreak, the UN official explained.

Of the US$518 million (CAD 718 million) needed for the joint preparedness and response plan launched in early June by the African Union's health agency (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the epidemic, only US$264 million (366 million euros) has been raised so far, the WHO warned on Wednesday.

No vaccine or specific treatment is currently available for the Bundibugyo variant responsible for the outbreak.