DRC Ebola outbreak 'growing exponentially,' UN says
The Ebola outbreak in the DRC is rapidly spreading in an area "bigger than France," according to a senior UN official. The WHO is providing the country with thousands of vaccine doses in a bid to contain the virus.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is rapidly expanding and may spread to neighboring countries, according to the UN's senior Ebola coordinator. This outbreak is the deadliest in the country's history, with over 2,500 deaths from more than 5,000 infections. The epidemic has grown so quickly and widely that it now covers an area larger than France, and half of the deaths have occurred in the last 20 days.
The virus causing this outbreak is the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain with no approved vaccine or treatment. The current outbreak is spreading faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, expanding about three times faster than the 2014-2016 West African epidemic, which killed around 11,000 people. The World Health Organization (WHO) has pledged to release 70,000 doses of Merck's Ervebo Ebola vaccine to the DRC to help contain the epidemic.
This allocation includes 20,000 doses for a Phase 3 clinical trial to assess the vaccine's impact on the Bundibugyo strain and 50,000 doses for frontline and health workers.
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