The death toll from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak has risen to 1,707 among 3,802 recorded cases, government data showed Tuesday, as international health agencies accelerated trials of experimental medicines and vaccines.
Declared on May 15, the epidemic is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record and has killed people faster than any previous outbreak.
Nearly 90 percent of cases are concentrated in the eastern province of Ituri, but infections have been confirmed in five other provinces, including the major city of Kisangani.
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said during a second visit to Bunia that it remained unclear when the outbreak would peak.
He cautioned that nearly 80 percent of new cases were arising through community spread rather than contact tracing.
The WHO is monitoring more than 17,000 potential contacts, with nearly 80 percent seen daily, but officials have yet to identify the outbreak’s first patient.
Armed conflict, illegal mining, displacement, attacks on health facilities, community mistrust and difficulties reaching affected areas have impeded tracing and treatment.
More than 100 healthcare workers have been infected, while funding cuts have left the response facing a significant shortfall.
The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which no vaccines or treatments have been approved.
Two trials of post-exposure preventive drugs are underway in Ituri, alongside vaccine trials in the United Kingdom and Canada, while enrollment has begun in a study of two potential treatments.
WHO official Vasee Moorthy said advance planning had enabled trials to start sooner than in earlier epidemics, though clinical testing must establish whether the candidates work.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was due in Kinshasa on Tuesday before an expected visit to Bunia later in the week.
Pressure on the response has also fueled labor unrest.
Healthcare workers in Mongbwalu threatened Monday to intensify industrial action within 24 hours over unpaid wages, following earlier strikes in Bunia over missing pay and dangerous conditions.
Uganda, meanwhile, declared itself Ebola-free in mid-June after discharging its last patient.