Ebola continues to spread in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as health authorities report more than 500 confirmed cases and struggle to contain the outbreak. Multiple outlets describe delays and gaps in contact tracing, with responders in some reporting periods following up only a small share of identified contacts. One report says health workers completed follow-up on roughly one-fifth of contacts in a day, while another cites that only a bit more than 70% of contacts are being traced at an appropriate level—levels described by WHO-linked reporting as too low for effective control.
Officials attribute the difficulty to conflict, insecurity, and population displacement, which limit responders’ ability to locate exposed people and keep patients in care. The Congo health minister disputes claims that the outbreak is spiraling out of control, while WHO warns that the current tracing performance is failing. Additional reporting from Africa CDC says the true scale of the epidemic remains unknown because workers cannot find missing contacts.
Outbreak coverage is expanding into new areas of the conflict-hit east, including health zones farther from the suspected origin point, as authorities race to assess the epidemic’s real footprint and transmission.
