2,500 dead and rising — UN says DR Congo Ebola outbreak ‘growing exponentially’

(AFP) — The Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo is growing “exponentially,” with more than 2,500 deaths recorded, half of them in the past 20 days, the senior U.N. coordinator on the disease said Friday.

The outbreak is already the largest in the country’s history and is spreading faster than any Ebola outbreak on record.

According to the latest figures, the virus is “growing exponentially,” Julien Harneis told reporters in Geneva from Bunia, at the epicenter of the outbreak.

He said that in the past three months, “more than 2,500 people” had died, “and half of those in the last 20 days.”

“The epidemic is spreading widely. It’s now covering an area that is bigger than France. … It is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response.”

The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak is thought to have been spreading for several weeks before it was officially declared May 15.

It has hit regions in the north and east where the presence of the state is weak, health infrastructure is lacking and myriad armed groups have operated for decades.

‘Alarming’

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, cautioned Friday that the outbreak was spreading “at an alarming rate.”

“This epidemic continues to spread, moving faster than the response can keep up,” MSF President Javid Abdelmoneim said in a statement.

Harneis stressed the need to ramp up the response, which has faced criticism over its slowness and poor organization and has also been hampered by mistrust among the population.

Cases have been reported in six DRC provinces, including near the border with South Sudan, as well as in neighboring Uganda.

Uganda, which recorded two deaths among 20 Ebola cases, declared itself free of the virus last month.

There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo virus strain behind the current outbreak, although a number of trials are underway.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the DRC would receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which has proved effective against the more common Zaire strain.

Earlier this month, WHO vaccine experts recommended a full-scale human trial of Ervebo, the only approved Ebola vaccine, to determine whether it offers cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain.

Early data, notably from animal trials, has shown it may provide some protection against Bundibugyo, but “it is not yet known whether Ervebo is protective against the Bundibugyo virus in humans,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier stressed Friday.