Congo suspended flights to the eastern city of Bunia and regional health ministers warned of escalating cross-border risks from Ebola as the outbreak spread across three provinces and overwhelmed contact-tracing efforts.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo reported 91 confirmed Ebola infections, 867 suspected cases and 204 probable deaths as of Friday. Health workers had managed to trace only a fifth of the 1,745 identified contacts under monitoring — a surveillance gap officials described as “alarming.”The worsening outbreak prompted Congo’s transport ministry to halt commercial, private and special flights to and from Bunia, one of the outbreak’s epicenters in Ituri province near the Ugandan border. Humanitarian and medical flights may still receive special authorization, the ministry said Saturday.
The measures underscore how rapidly the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is spreading through eastern Congo and into neighboring countries. That’s straining already fragile health systems and forcing authorities to rely heavily on basic public health measures because there is no approved vaccine or antibody treatment for the rare virus type.The US expanded its Ebola response Saturday, announcing enhanced airport screening requirements for travelers arriving from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, along with new emergency funding, medical supply shipments and the deployment of disaster response teams to affected areas.
