DRC Ebola outbreak growing exponentially, UN warns

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading exponentially and risks spilling over into neighboring countries unless containment efforts are urgently strengthened, the UN's senior Ebola coordinator said Friday.

Julien Harneis, the UN's senior Ebola coordinator, told journalists that the outbreak is already the deadliest in the country's history, with more than 2,500 deaths from over 5,000 infections. He stressed that the epidemic is spreading widely and now covers an area larger than France.

Half of the 2,500 deaths have been reported in the last 20 days alone, according to Harneis, who made the remarks during a press conference in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo, that was transmitted to Geneva.

"The epidemic is spreading faster and wider than the Ebola response," Harneis said, emphasizing that the outbreak's advance exceeds the speed of containment efforts and expands more rapidly than response measures deployed across the region.

In just three months, the current epidemic has surpassed the 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern DRC, which was previously considered the deadliest in the country's history. That earlier outbreak resulted in 2,299 deaths from 3,381 confirmed cases, according to World Health Organization data.

Harneis called for urgent increases in aid funding and the delivery of resources to remote areas to slow and eventually stop the virus's transmission. He warned that without stepped-up containment efforts, the outbreak risks spreading into neighboring countries.

The current DRC Ebola epidemic is the second-deadliest in the world after the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, which killed thousands across multiple countries in the region.