BUNIA, September 15 — More than seven thousand Ebola cases have now been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst outbreak of the disease, Congolese authorities said, even as the government suggested the spread may already have peaked. The figures, released by the Congolese government, put the toll at several thousand dead and more than a thousand people recovered since the outbreak was officially detected in mid-May. The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Several treatments and vaccines are being tested.
A peak, and a cautious hope
Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya, writing on X, said the peak was reached at the beginning of the third week of August. “All the indicators show a decrease in the number of cases,” he added, specifying that ten of the sixty-one health zones affected by the epidemic have not recorded any new cases for at least twenty-one days. That is the encouraging part.
But the picture is not uniform, and the virus has not stayed in one place. It was confirmed in South-Ubangi, which borders the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, earlier this week — the seventh province to report the disease.
The outbreak began in the northeastern Ituri province before spreading to conflict-plagued, remote eastern and northern regions where armed groups have roamed for decades, the presence of the state is weak and health infrastructure is lacking. Most of the recorded cases remain in Ituri.
Schools reopen, and parents worry
Ebola has been detected in schools in Ituri in the days after the post-summer holiday return to classes, causing alarm among parents and health workers. Angele Magani, the mother of a student in Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital, told AFP she was worried because it is not known which child comes from which family or what the health status of that family’s members is. “We are so scared, even though the school authorities reassure us about the health measures that have been put in place,” she said.
Bunia school official Roger Mungimbo said a mandatory hand-washing system with soap is in place, and that the schools have done everything possible to have a maximum of thirty pupils per classroom. Children are regularly made aware that they must not touch each other and must wash their hands regularly, he added.
Ebola, which has killed more than fifteen thousand people in Africa over the last fifty years, is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure. What to watch next is whether the decline Muyaya describes holds through the coming weeks, and whether the new province of South-Ubangi records further cases.
For now, the numbers point downward — early findings suggest the worst may be behind this outbreak, though the absence of an approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain keeps the response dependent on the treatments and vaccines still being tested. Consult your doctor for medical advice.
