Congo Ebola outbreak could be 'worst ever'

The head of Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the Ebola outbreak in Congo could be the worst ever, saying that it could cost billions of dollars to contain later if critical weaknesses in the response are not addressed quickly.

More than 800 cases of the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no proven treatment or vaccine, have been reported in Congo, 192 of them fatal.

The disease, transmitted through body fluids even after death, is spreading fast across three provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, government data shows.

"If we don't stop the outbreak very soon it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern DRC," Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya told a virtual meeting of African heads of state and donors in Burundi.

His warning, which echoed a similar projection by the US CDC, referred to the outbreak that affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2014 to 2016, which killed more than 11,000 people, and a less deadly 2018 outbreak in Congo.

But so far an Africa plan to raise $518 million over the next six months has only received a fraction of that, according to Burundi's President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the African Union chair.

"The resources received do not exceed $100 million," he said in opening remarks.

Africa CDC's Kaseya warned that the total funding needs would surge if the initial plan did not get sufficient support. "If we don't have it in the next four weeks, we will not ask again for $500 million, we'll be asking about $1.5 billion. If we delay that, it will be $7.5 billion," he said.

Critical challenges

A Red Cross official said separately that the Ebola epidemic in eastern DRC had not yet peaked.

"We are afraid that this could last one year to end this disease," Bruno Michon, operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters by video link from eastern Congo.

The response has been hampered by a lack of treatment centres and by community resistance to stringent hygiene measures. Health officials said that, over a month since the outbreak was declared, the true scale was still unknown.

Mr Michon said IFRC teams, which help with community engagement and safe and dignified burials of Ebola victims, had faced verbal abuse, threats and attacks in recent days.

The bodies of Ebola victims are highly infectious after death and unsafe traditional burials - in which family members handle ⁠the body without proper protective equipment - are a leading driver of transmission.

Africa CDC's Kaseya listed a series of critical challenges including insufficient resources to trace the contacts of the more than 800 confirmed Ebola cases.

"We are just following 12% of our people. This is a major indicator for us. It means we don't know the magnitude of this outbreak so far," he said.

There also are major shortages in the number of burial teams and a reported lack of personal protective equipment, he said.

US calls for more contributions from others

Aid workers say that support for this Ebola outbreak compares unfavourably to previous ones, including the West African one in which British and American soldiers helped, as well as foreign doctors.

Washington's representative said it was the fastest and most generous donor and called on others to contribute.

South Africa, China, Germany, France also said at the meeting they would provide more support to help with the emergency.