The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “is spreading exponentially,” a senior UN Ebola coordinator warned on Friday.
More than 2,500 deaths have been recorded so far, with half of them occurring in the last 20 days. This outbreak has already become the largest in the country’s history and is advancing at the fastest rate ever recorded.
According to the senior UN Ebola coordinator Julien Arney, who spoke from Bunia — the epicenter of the outbreak — to journalists in Geneva, the epidemic “is spreading exponentially.”
Over the past three months, “more than 2,500 people” have died from Ebola, with half of them in the last 20 days, Arney noted. The epidemic already covers an area larger than France and is outpacing the deployment of measures to combat it.
The 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, officially declared on May 15, likely began spreading several weeks earlier. It has affected the northern and eastern regions, where state presence is weak, medical infrastructure is largely absent, and numerous armed groups have been operating for decades.
The need to strengthen measures
Arney emphasized the need to intensify the fight against the epidemic. According to him, “If we send more personnel and allocate more resources to remote areas in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, within a few months we can slow down the spread of the virus and move towards stopping it.”
He added: “If we do not do this, then this epidemic will become deadlier. It will spread even further and may spill over into neighboring countries.”
Source: Euronews
