Kinshasa: The planet’s fastest-expanding Ebola epidemic is racing ahead of efforts to stop it, the World health Organisation (WHO) director-general warned on Wednesday from Congo, where a pay dispute has pushed some frontline health staff into strike action, AP reported.
Close to three months after the outbreak erupted, infection clusters in several areas are doubling in size, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X following meetings with authorities in Kinshasa, during his second visit to the central African nation since the crisis was declared in mid-May.
“We all agree that we must urgently and massively scale up all our efforts across all pillars of the response and by all partners,” Tedros said.
Surge In Cases, Strain On Workers
Congo’s health ministry, in its latest update on Monday, put the tally at 3,874 laboratory-confirmed Ebola infections and 1,751 deaths.
In Ituri, the worst-hit province, families described how numerous front-line caregivers have walked off the job, tightening the pressure on already fragile health services in a remote, strife-torn areas of eastern Congo near the frontiers of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.
Some workers say payments for duties performed since the outbreak began have started trickling in over the past week, but they are pressing for higher, more regular wages.
Anicet Baluku, a resident of Ituri’s capital Bunia, blamed the strike for the Ebola deaths of his two brothers. “We urge the authorities to quickly find a solution to prevent other families from experiencing the same tragedy,” he told The Associated Press.
Tracing Gaps, High Death Toll
On Wednesday, the US State Department announced an extra $242 million for immediate Ebola response and preparedness in the region, besides humanitarian aid linked to the outbreak, taking total American direct support to over $512 million, a statement said.
In terms of speed of spread, this epidemic has overtaken all earlier Ebola flare-ups and now ranks as the second-biggest ever, after the 2014–2016 West Africa crisis that registered more than 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths.
The outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo virus, which has no licensed vaccine or specific therapy. Local officials suspect it circulated undetected in a remote zone well before the May 15 declaration.
Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday the situation remains critical: “The outbreak is still spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate.”
The organisation added that the although the response is expanding “but is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”
Dr Jean Kaseya, who leads the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said on Tuesday in Bunia that contact tracing has largely failed, with at least 60% to 70% of fresh infections arising outside the pool of people being watched after exposure to known patients.
Officials say late identification of cases has pushed the fatality rate to 45%. In one 24-hour stretch, 44 of the 77 most recent reported cases ended in death, the health ministry said. At least 717 patients are currently in isolation, while 749 have recovered.
Kaseya, who met Tedros on Wednesday, said Africa CDC is aligning its work with responders “around earlier detection, stronger contact tracing, rapid access to quality care and deeper engagement with communities.”
Tedros urged steps to cover every affected locality, tighten coordination under government leadership and shield health workers.
“Above all, communities must be at the centre of and have ownership of the response,” he said. “We cannot stop Ebola without their trust, leadership and partnership.”
