Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are stepping up efforts to contain the worsening Ebola outbreak, with new treatment centers being established in the eastern regions of Rwampara and Mongwalu.
The country’s Health Minister, Samuel Roger Kamba, announced the measures on Sunday during a visit to Bunia, where he inspected preparations for additional treatment facilities.
Kamba said emergency tents had already been delivered to support the expansion of care centers, noting that hospitals in affected areas were struggling under increasing pressure from the growing number of patients.
“We currently have 59 patients receiving active treatment, but we are preparing facilities at all three sites to strengthen our response capacity,” he said.
Health officials in Bunia, one of the outbreak’s main hotspots in Ituri province, confirmed that treatment centers were being enlarged as hospitals faced overcrowding.
The intensified response comes after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. Authorities have recorded more than 300 suspected infections and 88 deaths linked to the outbreak.
Despite the alarming spread, the WHO said the situation does not currently meet the threshold for a pandemic emergency similar to COVID 19 and advised against shutting international borders.
According to health officials, the earliest known suspected Ebola case involved a 59 year old man who developed symptoms on April 24 and later died in an Ituri hospital on April 27.
By the time authorities became aware of the outbreak through social media alerts on May 5, at least 50 deaths had already occurred, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The WHO also reported that at least four healthcare workers showing Ebola symptoms had died during the outbreak.
WHO representative Anne Ancia said additional medical supplies were being flown into the country after emergency stockpiles in Kinshasa were exhausted during the initial response. A C 130 cargo aircraft loaded with medical equipment was being prepared in Nairobi before deployment to the DRC.
The WHO also confirmed a laboratory tested Ebola case in Kinshasa, nearly 1,000 kilometers from the outbreak’s epicenter in Ituri province, raising fears that the virus may be spreading more widely across the country.
Officials said the infected patient had traveled from Ituri, while additional suspected cases have also been identified in North Kivu Province.
Authorities in Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, announced on Sunday that the city had recorded its first confirmed Ebola case. The patient, who had traveled from Ituri province, has been placed in isolation.
The outbreak comes amid ongoing instability in eastern Congo, where clashes between government forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group have displaced hundreds of thousands of people following renewed fighting earlier this year.
