Death toll in the Ebola epidemic in the KDC increased to 2 thousand 325

According to the latest data announced by the DRC Ministry of Health, 4 thousand 945 confirmed cases have been detected since the beginning of the epidemic.

The death rate in the epidemic, in which a total of 2 thousand 325 people lost their lives, was recorded as 47 percent.

The current loss of life surpasses the Ebola epidemic in the east of the country, which killed 2,299 people in 2018-2020.

The epidemic, which was officially declared on May 15 and caused by the Ebola variant Bundibugyo virus, spread to 55 regions of 6 provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in his statement on August 12 that this epidemic was spreading faster than previous ones.

Ghebreyesus had warned that if this rate of spread continued, the epidemic could surpass the largest Ebola epidemic in history, which infected more than 28 thousand people in West Africa between 2014 and 2017.

Ebola caused thousands of deaths in Africa

The Ebola virus, which causes a type of hemorrhagic fever, first appeared in 1976 with simultaneous outbreaks in the town of Nzara in Sudan and the village of Yambuku in the DRC.

The virus was named after the outbreak in the DRC because it started in the village near the Ebola River.

The Ebola virus spread in West Africa in December 2013. In the epidemic seen in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2017, 30 thousand people were infected with the virus and more than 11 thousand of the patients died.

An epidemic was declared in the country on May 15, following 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths announced in Ituri province in the east of the DRC.

According to health officials, there is no approved treatment or vaccine for the "Bundibugyo" Ebola variant that broke out in May.