Ebola outbreak in DR Congo ‘fastest on record’ | World News

Ebola cases in DR Congo have reached 3,262 – making it the ‘fastest outbreak on record’, according to officials.

An overnight update from the country’s ministry of health revealed that 1,437 patients of the 3,262 cases had died.

Officials have said it is the fastest outbreak on record and has almost equalled the 2018-2020 outbreak, the largest ever recorded in the country.

That outbreak in DRC and neighbouring Uganda lasted roughly two years, with more than 3,400 reported cases, including over 2,200 deaths, according to the US Center for Disease Control.

The current wave of cases is centred in DRC’s eastern Ituri province.

“The fact that, in just 10 weeks, we have reached nearly the same number of cases recorded over an almost two-year outbreak is alarming and should stop us in our tracks,” said Onesphore Bangenza, Mercy Corps’ response team lead in Bunia, Ituri’s capital.

“There is no doubt that the virus is moving faster than we can contain it,” Mr Bangenza added.

The speed of transmission comes amid concerns from residents that many communities in the affected provinces are either unreachable or have been abandoned by responders in recent days over safety concerns amid attacks from angry residents and rebels.

The ongoing outbreak, which was declared on 15 May, is unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks because the Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments.

Efforts to slow the transmission have been challenged by rebel violence in eastern DRC as well as health workers striking to protest the nonpayment of their wages.

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If the number of deaths surpasses the 2018-2020 outbreak, it will make it the deadliest outbreak since the 2014-2016 outbreak across West Africa, considered the worst in history – with 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths.

The news comes as Uganda’s health minister declared the country Ebola-free on Tuesday, following the east African nation’s latest outbreak ‌of the viral haemorrhagic disease that infected 20 people and killed two of them.

Uganda has suffered multiple outbreaks of Ebola since 2000, when it recorded its first epidemic, and officials say over the years the country gained ‌expertise it has used to bring recent infections under control quickly with limited community spread.

Fifteen people in the latest outbreak were infected in neighbouring DRC – the epicentre of the epidemic.