Kinshasa, June 25: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reported a total of 1,118 Ebola cases, including 291 confirmed deaths, according to government sources.
An update released by the Ministry of Communication and Media of the DRC on Wednesday indicated that 122 individuals have recovered, while 408 patients are currently undergoing treatment. As of Tuesday, the mortality rate stood at 26 percent.
Efforts to monitor the Ebola outbreak continue, with 138 suspected cases identified and a contact tracing rate of 77.1 percent. The Ituri province remains the epicenter of this outbreak, while no new cases have been reported in the South Kivu province since May 26. Surveillance, patient care, and contact tracing efforts are ongoing in the affected areas.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on Wednesday that despite the rising cases in the affected region, the global risk posed by the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Africa remains low.
Earlier on Tuesday, Abdrahman Mahamoud, Director of WHO’s Health Emergency Alert and Response Operations, noted in a press briefing in Geneva that the number of confirmed cases in the first month of the outbreak is the highest recorded in Africa.
Mahamoud mentioned that the response is being expanded to align with the spread of the infection. He highlighted that treatment capacity has increased significantly in the past two weeks, growing from a few beds to over 500 across 19 health zones.
Additionally, laboratory capacity has rapidly expanded; at the start of the outbreak, approximately 30 tests were conducted daily in the capital, Kinshasa. This number has now surged to over 2,000 tests per day through a network of eight laboratories spread across Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces.
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi announced on Tuesday that he will soon visit the Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, to assess ongoing relief efforts on the ground.
He made these comments during a joint press conference with Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye, who is currently holding the rotating presidency of the African Union. Prior to the press conference, both leaders were briefed on the DRC’s pandemic situation and response measures by the national Ebola response task force.
To control the Ebola outbreak, Tshisekedi called for strong regional cooperation based on prevention, epidemiological monitoring, and rapid information sharing. Ndayishimiye urged African nations and the broader international community not to close their borders.
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