More than 7,000 Ebola cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo's worst outbreak of the deadly disease ever, according to figures released Saturday by Congolese authorities.
But the government also suggested that the spread of the disease may already have peaked, despite the virus having been confirmed in a seventh province earlier this week.
The DRC officially detected the latest outbreak in mid-May, with nearly 3,400 people killed in its 17th epidemic of the highly infectious virus.
It began in the northeastern Ituri province before spreading to conflict-plagued, remote eastern and northern regions where armed groups have roamed for decades, the presence of the state is weak and health infrastructure is lacking.
The disease was confirmed in South-Ubangi, which borders the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, earlier this week.
According to the latest figures from the Congolese authorities, 7,022 cases have been recorded since the beginning of the epidemic. Of that number, 3,398 people have died and 1,671 have recovered.
"The peak was reached at the beginning of the third week of August," Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya wrote on X on Saturday.
"All the indicators show a decrease in the number of cases," he added, specifying that "10 of the 61 health zones" affected by the epidemic have not recorded any new cases "for at least 21 days".
Most of the recorded cases are in Ituri, where Ebola has been detected in schools in the days after the post-summer holiday return to classes, causing alarm among parents and health workers.
"We are very worried because we don't know which child comes from which family or what the health status of the members of that family is," Angele Magani, the mother of a student in Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital, told AFP.
"We are so scared, even though the school authorities reassure us about the health measures that have been put in place," she added.
Bunia school official Roger Mungimbo said "there is a mandatory hand-washing system with soap, and we have also done everything possible to have a maximum of 30 pupils per classroom."
"We regularly make the children aware that they must not touch each other" and wash their hands regularly, he added.
Ebola, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years, is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure.
The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Several treatments and vaccines are being tested.
