DR Congo reports 1,094 Ebola cases as WHO records highest first-month outbreak caseload

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported 1,094 confirmed Ebola cases, including 277 deaths, in the current outbreak declared on May 15, with the World Health Organization (WHO) registering a record first-month caseload.

Official data released June 23 showed 387 cases were under quarantine or receiving treatment, and 115 recoveries. DRC authorities have also reported 131 suspected cases, including 44 suspected deaths.

In its daily epidemiological report, the health ministry noticed an increase in confirmed cases on a weekly basis, consistent with ongoing community transmissions.

It said intensified public health measures, including stronger epidemiological and laboratory surveillance as well as the decentralisation of diagnostic capacity, have contributed to earlier detection, confirming expanded community transmission, reports Xinhua news agency.

"This is the largest number of confirmed cases in the first month of an Ebola disease outbreak in Africa," Abdirahman Mahamud, director of Health Emergency Alert and Response Operations at the WHO, told a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Mahamud pointed to encouraging signs that the response was expanding to keep pace with the spread. Treatment capacity has increased over the past two weeks, "going from a handful to over 500 beds across 19 health zones," he said.

Laboratory capacity has also been sharply expanded, from around 30 tests per day in the capital Kinshasa at the start of the outbreak to more than 2,000 tests per day through a network of eight decentralised laboratories across Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, he said.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi said Tuesday that he would soon travel to Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, to follow up on response operations on the ground.

He made the remarks at a joint press conference in Kinshasa with visiting Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the African Union.

Prior to the press conference, the two leaders were briefed on the DRC's epidemiological situation and response measures at a meeting with the Central African country's national Ebola response task force.

To contain the Ebola outbreak, Tshisekedi also called for stronger regional cooperation based on prevention, epidemiological surveillance and rapid information-sharing.

Ndayishimiye urged African countries and the wider international community not to close borders.

Uganda, which borders the DRC's Ituri province that has accounted for about 90 per cent of the infections, has confirmed one more Ebola case, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 20, including 14 recoveries and two deaths, according to the latest data from its health ministry.

Fifteen of the reported cases were imported, it said.

Also on Tuesday, Uganda and the DRC launched cross-border collaboration to fight the Ebola outbreak, covering shared surveillance and joint deployment of rapid response teams, mobile laboratories, and Ebola treatment centres.

According to a WHO update released on Friday last week, the Ebola-related health risk in the DRC remained very high because of ongoing transmissions and continued expansion of the outbreak into new health zones, increasing the potential for further national and regional spread.

Meanwhile, the risk in Uganda remained high due to confirmed cross-border spread through imported cases and the epidemiological links along the eastern DRC-western Uganda corridor.

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