ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has voiced concern over the Ebola outbreak's rapidly expanding geographic transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the number of confirmed cases has surpassed 5,500.
Addressing the African High-Level Ministerial Committee meeting on Sunday evening at the headquarters of the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Africa CDC officials warned of the disease's rapid spread across a wider geographic area during its first 100 days.
"The outbreak is rapidly spreading, gaining more space. It is now the fastest growing Ebola outbreak that we have ever seen, and the second largest Ebola outbreak in history," said Wessam Mankoula, operations manager for the Ebola response at Africa CDC.
As the outbreak continues to spread across the DRC, the latest update from the Africa CDC and DRC authorities showed that the Central African country has recorded a total of 5,514 confirmed cases and 2,642 deaths, with a case fatality rate of 47.9 percent. A total of 1,200 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
The African Union's specialized continental public health agency highlighted that the outbreak has expanded from just three health zones in a single province when it was declared on May 15, to about 57 health zones across the DRC's six provinces.
"The outbreak is rapidly spreading. To give you a clearer picture of the geographical distribution of the cases in DRC, the affected provinces are larger than 36 member states in Africa. They are bigger than France, bigger than Spain, bigger than Germany. These provinces have a population more than 38 countries in the continent," Mankoula said.
"Compared to the largest Ebola outbreak (in West Africa), this rapidly evolving outbreak is by far 9.7 times the number of cases and 7.1 times the number of deaths that were reported in West Africa during the first 13 weeks of the outbreak," he added.
Africa CDC officials also highlighted that the intense cross-border mobility among communities in the affected areas poses a high risk of regional spread, as these areas are closer to the DRC's borders with Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
Meanwhile, African health authorities and experts attending the ministerial meeting called for enhanced African and global solidarity in support of the ongoing continental response to contain the outbreak.
The ongoing Bundibugyo outbreak, which was declared on May 15, is the DRC's 17th Ebola outbreak.
Beyond the DRC and Uganda, 11 other countries across the continent have been designated as high-risk: South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Zambia, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Somalia.
