UN warns of rapidly expanding Ebola epidemic in Congo

Senior UN officials called on Wednesday for international aid to contain the Ebola epidemic in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be increased three to five times. According to them, the spread of the infection is doubling every 20 days and is outpacing efforts to contain it.

"In the last 24 hours, 50 people have died of Ebola in Congo," UN Ebola Senior Coordinator Julien Arne told journalists in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province. "This is a much faster growth than the growth of our response, and therefore the gap between the epidemic and our reaction is widening."

According to data from Congo's National Institute for Public Health, since the outbreak was announced on May 15, 3,360 confirmed cases of infection and 1,487 deaths have been registered as of Monday. The current wave is only 10 weeks old, but in the coming days it risks surpassing in scale the previous one - the deadliest in the country's history, which lasted two years.

Crisis upon crisis

World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau described the situation as a "crisis upon crisis" during a visit to Ituri. He called it "the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic in history," noting that in just over two months, 1,000 people have died - the same number of victims that the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic claimed in eight months.

Across 48 affected health zones, more than 2.7 million people are facing acute food shortages, and 628,000 of them are in an emergency state. Restrictive measures to contain the virus - border closures, movement restrictions, and bans on mass gatherings - have disrupted the operation of markets and supply chains, leading to increases in food and fuel prices.

No vaccine and a funding shortage

The Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which caused this epidemic, has no approved vaccine or treatment - unlike the Zaire strain that triggered the previous major epidemic in Congo. On Thursday, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations announced it is funding the production of doses of an experimental vaccine against Bundibugyo for clinical trials. The vaccine was developed on the platform that underlies the licensed Ervebo vaccine, and its production is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

According to Arne, the UN's $2.1 billion humanitarian appeal for Congo is only 45% funded. The World Food Programme reported that to sustain all operations in the country over the next six months - including emergency logistics and food aid - $293.6 million is needed. Due to budget shortages, the agency has already been forced to reduce the number of aid recipients in Congo from 3 million last year to 1 million this year.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Uganda declared itself Ebola-free after the last patient was discharged in mid-June. However, the risk of cross-border transmission of the infection from Congo remains high.