MSF Says DR Congo Ebola Outbreak Still Spreading, Not Slowing

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated on Friday that efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are far from complete.

The organisation's comments came after both the DRC government and the World Health Organization had suggested earlier in the week that transmission appeared to be slowing in certain areas, leading to more optimistic media coverage.

The outbreak, officially declared in mid-May but believed to have begun spreading months before that, is described as the largest Ebola outbreak in the country's history and the fastest-spreading recorded anywhere to date.

MSF, which has roughly 1,700 staff working in the DRC, most of them Congolese nationals, cautioned that although the spread appeared to be easing in Ituri province, where the outbreak originated, the total number of new cases nationwide had not decreased.

According to MSF's emergency coordinator in the DRC, Anthony Kergosien, it would be a mistake to assume the outbreak is under control simply because some treatment centres are seeing fewer admissions. He explained that the outbreak has not diminished but instead shifted location, noting that South Ubangi has become the seventh province affected, while North Kivu now accounts for close to half of all newly confirmed cases, with test positivity rates climbing sharply in recent days.

Kergosien further noted that undetected chains of transmission have already become established in the hardest-hit regions, warning that the disease's spread into new areas with weaker health infrastructure and response capabilities presents a significant danger.