The World Health Organization said Wednesday that medical teams are "catching up" with an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has produced more than 340 confirmed cases and crossed into neighboring Uganda.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said testing is improving with "scaled-up laboratory and diagnostic capacity," but that contact tracing "is not yet where it needs to be," and that "The outbreak had a big head start, and we're still behind."
Congolese authorities have confirmed 60 deaths in the outbreak out of 344 cases, and the number of suspected cases has gone down from 906 to 116; neighboring Uganda has 15 confirmed cases, including one death, the country's health ministry said.
Militant violence has hampered response efforts: Congo's military said an attack late on Tuesday by an Islamic State affiliate known as the Allied Democratic Forces killed 16 people in Beni territory, and the group last month attacked villages near the Ugandan border, killing at least 40 people and burning and looting homes.
The outbreak has been identified as the rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola and was announced in mid-May in eastern Congo's provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, and wary residents have at times attacked health centers and demanded the bodies of loved ones.
"The true extent of the outbreak remains difficult to assess. Extremely limited testing capacity and difficulties accessing certain areas necessitate interpreting these figures with caution," Doctors Without Borders said Monday about the case numbers.
Tedros said blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries "are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response," and asked for them to be lifted while urging exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings; he avoided a reporter's question about a U.S. quarantine center in Kenya, saying, "I think based on their risk assessment … they (the United States) can do whatever they think is right for them."
At least five people have recovered so far, resources including protective gear have been rushed to the outbreak, there is no approved medicine or vaccine for the Bundibugyo type and "It's difficult to have an effective vaccine that adheres to the scientific protocol available quickly," Dr. Aruna Abedi, a Congolese epidemiologist, said.