Ebola outbreak becomes Congo’s worst on record, with over 2,300 dead

Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak has now killed over 2,300 people and become the deadliest outbreak of the disease on record in the Central African nation.

The outbreak unfolding in one of Congo’s most vulnerable regions is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever, with 4,945 cases including 2,325 deaths, according to government data released overnight into Monday.

This is Congo’s 17th and largest Ebola outbreak. The toll eclipses that of the country’s 2018-2020 outbreak when 2,299 deaths out of 3,481 cases were recorded.

The latest data shows 101 new cases and 33 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours. Over 1,000 people have recovered, while 730 remain in hospitals or isolation.

The outbreak has infected and killed more people at a greater speed than any other outbreak in history. The World Health Organization has said it is on track to surpass the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the deadliest on record with more than 11,000 deaths.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak across six provinces in Congo’s east. Trials for those are ongoing in Ituri province, the center.

Most new cases and deaths are being reported outside of people being monitored. Challenges also include strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities, territories difficult to reach due to bad roads, and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

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WHO warned over the weekend that the outbreak is still moving at an “exceptional pace” ahead of efforts to track it, noting that it reached a weekly record of 579 cases and 304 deaths in the previous week.

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“A substantial scaling up of response activities is underway to get ahead of the outbreak,” the agency said.

On Friday, United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher announced the allocation of an additional $30.5 million and the deployment of 20 more staff to aid the response on the front lines.

“This is a wake-up call,” Fletcher said. “We need speed, scale and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of us.”