Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say the country’s latest Ebola outbreak may have passed its peak, offering a cautious sign of progress in the fight against the deadly disease.
Officials reported that infections are declining for the first time since the outbreak was formally declared in May, although they urged communities to continue following public health guidance.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said transmission of the Bundibugyo strain had slowed, but warned that prevention measures must remain firmly in place as authorities work to contain the virus.
“We are confronting a highly dangerous virus that has claimed many lives. Today, we can say the outbreak is under control,” Kamba said. He added that daily infections had fallen from roughly 120 at the height of the outbreak to about 80, with new cases continuing to decrease.
Kamba said 10 of the 62 affected health zones had gone more than 22 days without recording a new case. Six zones could now be removed from the active list after passing 42 days without infections, while another four had exceeded 21 days without a new case, he said.
The Sud-Ubangi region, which borders the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, became the sixth province to report Ebola cases last week.
The current outbreak of Bundibugyo Ebola was announced on 15 May and is centred largely in Ituri province. Continued conflict in the area has made it harder for health workers to reach communities and respond effectively. It is the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified and named in 1976.
There is still no proven treatment specifically for the Bundibugyo strain, though clinical trials are under way in the region. Last month, the DRC received more than 70,000 doses of Ervebo, the only approved vaccine for the more widespread Zaire Ebola virus.
Children read an information poster about Ebola in Bunia, Ituri province, which is one of the areas of the DRC hardest hit by the outbreak. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters
Figures released by the Congolese health ministry showed more than 7,200 confirmed infections and over 3,475 deaths as of 14 September.
Iracan Gratien de Saint-Nicolas, a lawmaker representing Bunia, welcomed the signs of improvement but cautioned officials against what he described as “triumphalism”. He said response efforts should be strengthened and that the public must be given clear evidence that the outbreak is genuinely under control.
Gratien Iracan also urged authorities to examine weaknesses in disease surveillance, arguing that failures in monitoring had helped Ebola spread rapidly.
The MP questioned the government’s assessment and called for greater openness. “Any claim that an epidemic is under control must be backed by objective evidence. If the figures confirm that the outbreak is contained, they should be published. Transparency will help restore public trust,” he said.
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He warned that some indicators that showed an epidemic was under control seemed to have been omitted by the DRC authorities, such as a sustained decline in new cases (over seven to 21 days), a decrease in deaths, a reduction in areas with active transmission, the majority of new cases originating from contacts already identified, and a high rate of contact tracing, as well as dignified and safe burials.
Early last month, Jean Kaseya, the director general of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, visited Bunia – capital of Ituri and a centre of the current Ebola outbreak – and said then that there was no way of knowing when the peak might be reached but that containment and contact tracing were still not effective enough.
Kaseya said: “A large portion of the mortality – 60 to 70% of deaths – comes from the community. The list of contacts we have just keeps growing. Epidemiologists say we’ve reached the peak when all cases come from the list of contacts.”
In Rwampara, a town in Ituri, people are exhausted from the past few months of living with the dread of the disease. Léa Munyere, 36, a mother of four, said she was relieved that the health authorities had announced that Ebola was under control. Two of her close friends had died and she was still struggling to come to terms with the loss, she said.
“We hope the disease will soon be declared over. It has robbed us of the people we cherish so much since it was first reported,” she said. “We just want to get back to our normal lives.”
