Ebola Spreading at 'Unprecedented Speed' as Congo Response Struggles to Keep Pace

Every day in eastern Congo, teams in protective suits go into homes where someone has died of Ebola and disinfect them. It is dangerous work, and by the account of one of those workers, it has been going unpaid for months.

That worker is Wiza Bondele. He also served during Congo's 2018 Ebola outbreak and came back believing his experience could save lives again. Instead, he says, he and many colleagues went on strike because nobody was addressing their allowances or salaries. He describes jobs like cleaning up after a patient who has vomited blood. Bondele returned to work anyway, though the pay dispute was not settled. Each day response teams stay away, he says, gives the virus room to spread. He also says every shift carries the risk of bringing the infection home to his family and neighbours, and that this fear has led him to want to leave the job altogether.

His situation reflects a wider problem. More than two months after the outbreak was declared, the Democratic Republic of Congo is dealing with what is described as the world's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak. It has reached five provinces, with nearly 3,900 confirmed infections and more than 1,700 deaths. Ituri is the epicentre. The World Health Organization believes the true toll could be several times higher, because many infections are going undetected.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the epicentre and said he is deeply concerned. What sets this outbreak apart, he said, is its unprecedented speed. The detail that worries health officials most is how many people die before anyone knows they are sick. According to Tedros, 80 per cent of community deaths fall outside the contact lists that tracers work from. Whole chains of transmission are being missed, and the virus moves quietly through communities. His proposed remedy is stronger, decentralised surveillance run by communities themselves, which he says could narrow the gap.

Security is a second obstacle. Aid agencies have suspended some Ebola operations after angry crowds attacked treatment centres, forcing staff and patients to flee. Manon Dumortier, Mercy Corps' Director of Ebola Response Operations, said a suspension of about ten days in Nyakunde slows everything down and erodes earlier gains, including water, sanitation and hygiene work. It also damages the community trust that she says all partners are trying to build.

The difficulty of the geography became plain this week. Authorities intercepted a river boat carrying around 200 passengers after one traveller developed Ebola symptoms, hoping to keep the virus from reaching the capital, Kinshasa. Rivers are the main transport routes in a vast country where many communities are isolated, which makes tracking movement hard.

Tedros still says the outbreak can be stopped, but only if the response can finally outrun the virus. For now, the pressure points are plain: unpaid frontline workers, interrupted operations in areas where trust is thin, and a large share of deaths occurring beyond the reach of contact tracing.