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 could potentially spread to neighboring countries, according to the UN's senior Ebola coordinator, Julien Harneis. The epidemic, which is the deadliest in the country's history, has resulted in over 2,500 deaths from more than 5,000 infections.
Harneis noted that the outbreak is spreading rapidly across an area larger than France, with half of the fatalities occurring in the past 20 days. He emphasized the urgent need for increased funding and resource delivery to remote areas to curb the virus's transmission. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain with no approved vaccine or treatment.
First detected earlier this year in Ituri province, the virus has since spread to five other provinces and neighboring Uganda. Congolese authorities declared the outbreak on May 15, though experts believe it may have been circulating earlier. The outbreak is the fastest-spreading on record, expanding about three times faster than the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which claimed around 11,000 lives.
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. The vaccine, primarily approved for the Zaire strain, may offer some protection against the Bundibugyo strain due to early animal trial data.
Written by urgent.news from DW News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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