The number of suspected Ebola cases across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda has surpassed 1,100, the head of the African Union’s health agency disclosed on Sunday, as he warned that Africa’s dependence on external funding risked slowing a response that must match the pace of the outbreak.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said in a commentary published in the Financial Times that as of Saturday, 263 cases had been confirmed across both countries with 43 confirmed deaths, while more than 1,100 additional suspected cases were still under investigation.
“We must move at the speed of the epidemic,” Kaseya wrote, adding that the latest outbreak was a “serious test” for both the Africa CDC and the African Union and that “this outbreak will not be the last.”
International health authorities have cautioned that current figures are likely an underestimation of the true scale of the crisis, given the challenges of conducting surveillance in conflict-affected areas of eastern DRC where the outbreak is centred.
The health ministers of DRC, Uganda and South Sudan have adopted a $319m response plan to address the outbreak, with Kaseya calling for that momentum to expand across the continent.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 in Ituri province in northeast DRC. It has since spread to three Congolese provinces and into Uganda, where seven confirmed cases have been recorded, all linked to cross-border movement from Ituri. No vaccine or approved treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain driving the outbreak.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus continued a visit to Ituri province on Sunday after arriving the previous day.
“You are not alone in this. We are here, we are with you, and we will see this through together,” he told communities affected by the outbreak.
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