The aid group MSF (Doctors Without Borders) has warned that the true death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely higher than official figures suggest, with rising insecurity in the country’s east said to be hampering efforts to track and contain the virus.
Official case counts put the outbreak at more than 8,000 confirmed cases and close to 4,000 deaths, figures the aid agency says probably understate the real scale given how much of the affected region remains difficult for responders to reach.
Genetic analysis is reported to have identified the strain driving the outbreak as the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, one of the rarer and less commonly studied variants of the virus, which health officials say has complicated some aspects of the response.
MSF says one of its own staff members contracted the virus while working in the affected area and was evacuated for treatment, a development the organisation says underscores the risks faced by health workers operating on the frontline of the response.
A treatment and isolation centre in Kigonze was reportedly destroyed in a fire in recent days, further straining response infrastructure in a region where access was already limited. The cause of the blaze has not been confirmed.
The outbreak is unfolding against a backdrop of continued fighting between Congolese forces and armed groups in the east, which has displaced large numbers of people and left aid organisations struggling to reach some communities safely. Humanitarian workers say the security situation remains fluid and unpredictable in several of the worst-affected areas.
Health officials have described the outbreak as among the more serious filovirus events recorded in the country in recent years, and international attention is said to be building around the response as case numbers continue to climb.