Congo’s Ebola outbreak on track to surpass deadliest in history, WHO chief says

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is on track to surpass the deadliest outbreak in history, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has already seen at least 4,300 cases and caused more than 2,000 deaths, and at its current pace, it is expected to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016, which killed at least 11,000 people, as stated by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or recognised therapeutic drugs. According to the WHO Africa director, Dr Mohamed Janabi, the virus started spreading in February and was initially misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid. The epidemic is spreading faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, with new cases and deaths being reported in communities outside the reach of health workers in a remote part of eastern Congo.

The WHO hopes to reverse the spread of the disease within three months, but warned that this means bringing transmission under control, not ending the outbreak entirely. The organisation's head of emergency response division, Abdirahman Mahamud, said that if all aspects of the response are implemented at the same time across the five transmission zones, they are expecting a turnaround in three months.

Brief written by urgent.news from Euronews, BBC World, Free Malaysia Today, Qatar Tribune, Medical Xpress — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.