Ebola in the DRC and Uganda: the death toll now exceeds 1,000, according to the WHO

The Ebola disease epidemic has claimed 1,001 lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, according to the latest figures released Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is based on data from Congolese health authorities.

In total, 999 deaths and 2,473 confirmed cases have been recorded in the DRC since the start of the epidemic, declared in mid-May, the WHO indicated in a situation report dated July 20.

The death toll remains at two, with 20 confirmed cases in neighboring Uganda, where authorities claimed last week that they no longer had any cases. However, the country must wait another month without any new cases to be officially considered free of the virus.

Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The deadliest outbreak in the DRC resulted in nearly 2,300 deaths out of 3,500 recorded cases between 2018 and 2020.

The 17th epidemic in the DRC, officially declared on May 15, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus for which there is neither a vaccine nor a treatment.

A clinical trial involving two treatments against this rare strain began in early July, according to the WHO, which also granted emergency use authorization to the first molecular diagnostic test for the virus.

Last week, the WHO also announced the first safety trial of the ChAdOx1 vaccine, led by the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).

The epicenter of the crisis, the true extent of which is still difficult to assess and which could last for several months, is located in Ituri, a province in northeastern Congo bordering South Sudan and Uganda. According to the WHO, the province accounts for 89.1% of cases and 83.9% of deaths.

"The epidemic is still ahead of us and we are still in a phase where we are trying to catch up with its evolution," said Thierno Baldé, head of incident management at the WHO in the DRC, to the press on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Some areas, such as Bunia (capital of Ituri) and its surroundings, are experiencing very intense transmission," we maintain "our priority on controlling the situation" in these areas, he specified.

The virus is also present in four other provinces, including North Kivu and South Kivu, where the provincial capitals and large swathes of territory are controlled by the anti-government armed group M23.