A staff member takes the temperature of a passenger from a boat outside Kinshasa on Thursday. Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have intercepted the boat following the death of a former passenger suspected of having Ebola. XINHUA
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has entered a critical new phase, with 4,035 cases confirmed.
Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday that the cases overwhelmed traditional contact tracing and forced health authorities to adopt a village-by-village response while expanding vaccination and antiviral treatment.
Kaseya announced the strategy during a joint news briefing by the Africa CDC and the World Health Organization following a high-level mission to Uganda and the DR Congo, where officials assessed the outbreak response and identified community engagement as the key to slowing transmission.
The shift comes as the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, continues to spread rapidly across eastern DR Congo. Health authorities said the country now has 1,850 deaths, with infections reported in 51 health zones across five provinces.
