KINSHASA, DRC- Three laboratories in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have run out of supplies needed to test for Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, raising concerns as the country’s outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain continues to expand.
According to the WHO’s latest situation report, laboratories in Bukavu and Lwiro in South Kivu Province, as well as Goma in North Kivu Province, have exhausted their stocks of testing materials and are awaiting the delivery of reagents required to process samples.
The agency said the shortage has left the facilities unable to test backlogged samples, although it did not immediately indicate how many samples remain pending or whether new supplies have since arrived.
The testing disruption comes as the Ebola outbreak continues to spread. Congolese authorities reported nearly 600 confirmed cases and more than 115 deaths earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the government announced that the outbreak had expanded into a new health zone, Tchomia in Ituri Province, bringing the total number of affected health zones to 26.
The latest figures showed 635 confirmed cases and 127 deaths, with the majority of infections recorded in Ituri Province.
The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a rarer form of the virus for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
Health experts say testing initially faced challenges because widely available Ebola diagnostic tools were designed to detect the more common Zaire strain and could not identify the Bundibugyo variant.
Testing capacity later improved through the efforts of the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa.
INRB Director Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe said laboratory capacity has significantly improved in recent weeks, with regional laboratories now able to return results on the same day. However, he noted that community engagement remains a major challenge in controlling the outbreak.
The WHO has classified the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and recently launched a six-month response plan requiring $518 million to support containment efforts in the DRC, Uganda and neighbouring countries.
