Deadliest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo history

The current Ebola outbreak is the deadliest in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Health authorities said 2,325 people have already died after a virus infection. The largest Ebola outbreak to date in West Africa caused so many deaths only after it had already lasted three times as long. The virus is spreading faster than ever before in the Central African country. The Congolese authorities said 101 new cases were reported to them within 24 hours. A total of around 5,000 infections are known. However, many cases remain undetected: 60 to 70 percent of reported infections affect people who were not previously known as contact persons. Many of them are already showing symptoms and are very likely to have infected other people.

“The virus is one step ahead of us” “We are chasing the virus,” said the Africa regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Mohamed Yakub Janabi. “The virus is one step ahead of us.” There are currently no medications or a vaccine that protects against the so-called Bundibugyo variant of the virus. According to official figures, the mortality rate has risen to 46 percent, up from 20 percent at the beginning of June. Experts assume that the statistical increase reveals insufficient monitoring of the infection process. Uganda declared Ebola outbreak over According to experts, the epidemic broke out in January but was not detected until mid-May. There have been around a dozen outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the virus was discovered in the 1970s.