•Ebola outbreak
An Ebola outbreak has now killed 2,325 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak of the virus, according to government figures released today.
The United Nations says that the Ebola outbreak “is the fastest-growing on record” and is killing a victim every 30 minutes in the DRC, reports AFP.
The deaths were from 4,945 confirmed cases, overtaking an outbreak in 2018-2020 that killed 2,299 people in the DRC from 3,381 confirmed cases.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever hit West Africa in 2013-2016, killing more than 11,300 people, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The DRC outbreak began in the conflict-scarred northeastern province of Ituri and has since spread to five other provinces in the sprawling central African country of more than 100 million people.
Declared on May 15, it is thought to have already been spreading for several weeks at that point, and is the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak.
The World Health Organisation last week said it hoped to reverse the spread of the disease in the country within three months.
Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes a haemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
