Congo Ebola contact tracing falls far short as outbreak spreads

Health authorities battling the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo have identified only about 30,000 people who may have been exposed to

the virus, a fraction of the more than 400,000 expected through contact tracing, a senior African health official told Reuters.



Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the shortfall showed the outbreak remained entrenched in communities despite signs of progress.



More than 80% of new confirmed cases were being detected among people who were not already on contact lists, suggesting transmission is still occurring beyond the reach of surveillance efforts.



For every confirmed Ebola case, health authorities would expect to identify about 60 people who had direct or indirect contact with the infected person, Kaseya told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.



With roughly 7,000 confirmed cases, that would translate into about 420,000 contacts. "But currently, we have just 30,000 people in the contact list," Kaseya said.