Congo's Ebola outbreak has become the fastest-growing on record as responders struggle to keep pace At least 2,000 people have died among confirmed cases in Congo’s Ebola outbreak, now the fastest-growing outbreak on record, according to the latest government data, as health authorities struggle to get help to remote localities quickly due to rebel conflict, bad roads and work stoppages over payment issues.
Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths. A total of 704 patients are currently in admission and isolation.
The grim toll comes nearly three months after the outbreak was declared on May 15. While it took about nine weeks to record the first 1,000 deaths, it took just around three weeks to record the next 1,000 — a sign of how fast the crisis is moving beyond the control of responders. It’s already the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, behind only the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which recorded more than 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths.
How Congo’s Ebola Outbreak Is Outpacing the Response
Aid workers say the outbreak continues to outpace a response that has been expanding across the five affected provinces. Many health workers have gone on strike to protest a lack of payment since the outbreak was declared, and most new cases are being recorded outside of contacts already being monitored.
This outbreak is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments; clinical trials for those have begun in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak. The World Health Organization said Monday the outbreak likely started in February, long before authorities detected it in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas. WHO said some early cases were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid, and that early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola.
WHO regional director for Africa Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi told a news conference that officials are “chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us”.
The first Ebola virus was identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now Congo. The current outbreak is the 17th — and largest — the Central African nation has faced.
- Source: AP