The World Health Organization (WHO) says the ongoing Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recorded more than 7,700 cases and 3,700 deaths.

Director, Emergency Preparedness and Response, WHO African Region, Dr Marie Belizaire, said this on Wednesday during a virtual briefing on the outbreak, saying the situation remained a significant health security concern.

Ms Belizaire said the outbreak, declared 131 days earlier, had recently shown encouraging signs in some locations, though the overall situation remained unstable as cases and deaths continued increasing in some affected provinces.

She said between August 31 and September 20, cases declined by approximately 26 per cent in Ituri and 15 per cent in Hoveli, while North Kivu recorded a 73 per cent increase during the period.

According to her, the contrasting trends demonstrated that the outbreak was evolving differently across affected areas, with each province experiencing distinct transmission patterns requiring locally adapted response strategies.

Ms Belizaire said one of WHO’s major concerns was that too many people were still dying before reaching treatment centres, with about one-third of new cases identified only after death in communities.

She explained that community deaths increased the risk of further transmission among family members, caregivers and people involved in burial practices, making early detection, referral and safe burial critical components of the response.

The WHO official said children under five were particularly vulnerable, recording a case fatality rate of more than 60 per cent compared with approximately 40 per cent among adults.

She said contact follow-up had reached almost 88 per cent, representing an improvement, but many infections were still being detected without known epidemiological links, indicating continuing gaps in surveillance and contact tracing.

Ms Belizaire said WHO and partners had expanded response infrastructure to nearly 1,400 treatment and isolation beds across 49 Ebola treatment centres, while 25 laboratories could process up to 3,500 tests daily.

Also, WHO Ebola Incident Manager in the DRC, Dr Catherine Smallwood, said shortages of human resources remained one of the biggest challenges, particularly as additional treatment beds became available and required qualified personnel.

Ms Smallwood said another major challenge was decentralising the response from urban centres to rural communities where cases were occurring, noting that long distances often delayed referrals and prevented patients from receiving timely treatment.

She said North Kivu was experiencing a significant proportion of cases among children under five, whose symptoms could be difficult to recognise because young children were unable to clearly explain their symptoms.

Ms Smallwood said health authorities were also concerned about community deaths in North Kivu and were strengthening surveillance systems and community engagement to understand why patients continued remaining at home instead of seeking treatment.

She, however, said early signs of declining cases and deaths in North Kivu after several weeks of increases were encouraging, adding that sustained improvements would gradually reduce pressure on treatment centres and the wider health system.

The WHO’s latest situation report put the cumulative total at 7,733 confirmed cases and 3,732 deaths as of September 20, with the outbreak having spread to 63 health zones.

(NAN)