The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has grown to 4,665 cases and 2,184 deaths as of August 12, the World Health Organisation said in figures reported on August 17, giving a case fatality ratio of 46.8 percent.
The outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo ebolavirus, has now been recorded in 54 health zones across six provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele. WHO described it as the largest outbreak of its kind ever reported in the country, and one expanding faster than previous Ebola outbreaks in the DRC.
Transmission is still accelerating. In epidemiological week 32, covering August 3 to 9, health authorities logged 579 new cases and 304 deaths, among the heaviest weekly tolls of the response so far.
Two cases have been exported beyond the DRC. France recorded an imported case with no onward transmission, and Uganda recorded an imported case that remains under enhanced monitoring, according to the WHO account.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have both been engaged in the response, which spans surveillance, contact tracing, safe burials and treatment capacity across a conflict-affected region of eastern DRC.
For West African health systems, the exported cases are the operational signal. Airport screening, laboratory turnaround times and isolation capacity at referral hospitals are the controls that decide whether an imported case becomes a cluster.
Why it matters: An outbreak of this size in a mobile, cross-border region raises importation risk for every major African aviation hub, Nigeria included.
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