300 Ebola patients missing in DRC as cases rise

Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo cannot locate 297 people who have tested positive for Ebola. The figure comes from a comparison of confirmed cases, recoveries, current treatment numbers, and deaths. More than one million displaced people live in camps that health workers cannot reach because of ongoing conflict.

Officials said this lack of access prevents contact tracing and leaves the scale of transmission inside the camps unknown.

Current case totals and spread The outbreak has recorded 1,118 confirmed cases and 291 deaths in the DRC, plus 20 cases and two deaths in neighboring Uganda. On Wednesday a doctor who had worked in the DRC tested positive after returning to France. Projections published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases by the World Health Organization’s Africa office estimate 8,210 cases and 1,420 deaths by mid-September under a central scenario.

The same modeling gives a 70 percent chance the virus reaches South Sudan in the coming weeks.

Response measures and funding Authorities require anyone leaving affected provinces to wait 21 days before further travel. Officials plan to hire 20,000 local community health workers to improve contact tracing. Africa CDC and the WHO earlier estimated $518 million in health spending is needed, rising to $1.4 billion when humanitarian needs are included.

Only 13 percent of $910 million pledged by governments and organizations has been delivered so far. A trial of drugs that may treat the Bundibugyo strain is scheduled to begin in the DRC next week, followed one week later by a trial of an antiviral for contacts.