The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is battling what health officials have described as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, with more than 1,400 people reported dead and over 3,200 confirmed cases.
According to government figures released on July 6, the death toll had risen to 1,405, while confirmed infections surpassed 3,200 since the outbreak was declared on May 15.
Health officials said the outbreak is spreading faster than any previous Ebola epidemic. During the 2013–2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people from over 28,000 confirmed cases, it took approximately eight months for the death toll to reach 1,000.
In the current outbreak, the same milestone was reached in less than 10 weeks.
The outbreak marks the 17th recorded Ebola outbreak in the DRC but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus. There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment specifically for the strain.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the actual number of infections could be between two and four times higher than official figures.
Health authorities are also concerned that approximately 80 per cent of newly reported cases are emerging outside known chains of transmission, making it increasingly difficult to trace infections and contain the spread.
The outbreak has been further complicated by industrial action among healthcare workers over unpaid salaries and allowances.
About 100 doctors, nurses and security personnel at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, Ituri Province, reportedly stopped work and staged protests over unpaid performance bonuses. The disruption affected one of the region's key Ebola response centres.
Healthcare workers at Bunia General Hospital, the largest medical facility in the region, also reportedly went on strike over unpaid salaries, with some staff telling the Associated Press that they had not received their wages since joining the Ebola response.
Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya, told Sky News that a lack of resources was worsening the situation.
“These are people dying,” he said. “They are dying because we don't have vaccines, we don't have medicine, we don't have funding.”
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected people or animals, as well as contaminated objects. The virus can also spread through contact with the bodies of people who have died from the disease.
Symptoms typically develop between two and 21 days after infection and may initially include high fever, severe muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat.
As the disease progresses, patients may experience vomiting, diarrhoea, skin rashes, liver and kidney failure and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
The Bundibugyo strain has an estimated fatality rate of between 30 and 50 per cent.
Despite the absence of an approved vaccine for the strain, researchers have begun testing an experimental vaccine developed using technology similar to that used in the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the BBC, the first volunteer received the experimental vaccine last week as part of an early-stage clinical trial.
Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has warned that the movement of Ebola victims’ bodies between different parts of the country for funerals and burials could further accelerate the spread of the virus.
The organisation stressed that Ebola remains highly infectious after death, making safe and controlled burial practices critical to efforts to contain the outbreak.
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