We are eleven months into the second-worst Ebola outbreak on record, the worst in the history of DR Congo. Over 1,500 people have died, while more than 2,200 have become sick with the virus. While the first seven months saw a steady accumulation of a relatively small flow of patients, things have changed for the worse in March, when the number of people infected each week has increased dramatically.

One of the main challenges in gaining control of the outbreak is the fact that a majority of the new cases are not linked to any known Ebola patient. This means that responders still struggle to have good visibility on the chain of transmission and to identify and follow up the contacts of sick patients (it also means these “invisible contacts” cannot be offered the Ebola vaccine). This failure to control the chain of transmission is due to some extent to the context (highly mobile population, some areas being inaccessible because of the presence of armed groups), but also to the fact that the Ebola response is still failing to gain the trust and buy-in of the population. As many as 40% of the Ebola cases recorded every week are people who died before they could even be identified as Ebola patients and referred for treatment.