Congo's Ebola cases rising at record pace

The Ebola epidemic in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has now spread to a sixth province in the country. Concerns are growing that the life-threatening infectious disease could reach the capital, Kinshasa, which is home to 19 million people.

Facilities for isolating patients are ready for the event that a public health alert should hit the capital, said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB).

"If there is a suspected case, the epidemiological services and the INRB laboratory are ready to quickly identify and confirm cases," he told DW.

"The Ministry of Health has set up the Cinquantenaire Hospital so that it can admit and fully isolate patients if necessary. We are prepared. We can quickly contain an Ebola outbreak here in Kinshasa."

However, the virus has been spreading faster than health authorities can contain it. This Ebola outbreak is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no vaccine or treatment has yet been approved.

According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , director-general of the World Health Organization , the outbreak, given its rapid rise, could surpass the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016.

Some 11,000 people died at the time. The current health crisis has claimed 2,000 lives so far, with more than 4,300 cases recorded to date. Authorities officially announced the outbreak on May 15; three months later, the country remains on edge.

The WHO, meanwhile, expects the current outbreak to only peak in six months .