Ebola cases top 3,500 in DR Congo as Africa CDC warns of worsening outbreak

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 3,532, with 1,556 confirmed deaths, according to the latest figures released on Friday by the country's public health authorities.

The outbreak has now spread across five eastern provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo. Currently, 807 patients remain in isolation or under hospital care, while 626 people have recovered.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has warned of mounting operational constraints hampering the Ebola response in the DRC while praising Uganda for successfully containing the outbreak.

During an online press briefing on Thursday evening, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said the continued outbreak "is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded" and is now the second-largest by total confirmed cases.

Kaseya expressed concern over critical constraints hindering response efforts in the DRC, citing limited contact tracing capabilities, rising community cases and deaths, an increasing case fatality rate, and inadequate bed capacity. He also cited persistent funding shortages, insecurity, unsafe burial practices, and infections and deaths among healthcare workers as major obstacles to containing the outbreak.

Despite the challenges, the Africa CDC highlighted progress in several areas of the response, including improvements in laboratory testing capacity. Currently, 19 laboratories are actively engaged in testing, up from just two at the start of the outbreak, while daily testing capacity has surpassed 3,000 samples.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)