DRC Ebola Outbreak Becomes Deadliest in the Country's History, With 2,325 Dead

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo —

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the deadliest in the country's history, with at least 2,325 people dead, according to data released Sunday by the country's public health institute. The toll surpasses the 2,299 deaths recorded during the 2018-2020 outbreak, which had been the country's worst until now.

Confirmed cases have risen to 4,945, including 101 detected in the previous 24 hours, the institute said. More than 3,400 of those cases have come from Ituri province in the country's northeast, where the outbreak was first identified. Six of the country's 26 provinces have now reported cases.

The World Health Organization has said the outbreak is on pace to overtake the 2014-16 epidemic in West Africa as the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded. That outbreak, which spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killed 11,310 people out of 28,616 cases, according to WHO figures. It took nearly five months for that outbreak to reach 1,000 deaths. The current one passed 2,000 deaths in less than three months.

A Rising Death Rate

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' humanitarian chief, warned last week that "Ebola is winning" in Congo and said the disease was killing someone every 30 minutes, according to the BBC. The share of confirmed cases that end in death, known as the case fatality ratio, has climbed from about 20 percent in early June to 46 percent now, meaning nearly half of confirmed patients die, according to government data reported by France 24.

Experts say that increase does not mean the virus has gotten more dangerous. Instead, it reflects weak health infrastructure, resistance from local communities and ongoing instability that are slowing efforts to find and treat patients early, France 24 reported.

"Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier," said Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist recently deployed to Congo with Doctors Without Borders. "Instead, we're still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community."

No Approved Vaccine Yet

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no vaccine or treatment has been approved. Clinical trials of two possible treatments began last month in Ituri, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, said two vaccines developed specifically for the strain are now being tested in people, according to the Guardian. One candidate, being developed at the University of Oxford, uses the same technology behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the BBC reported.

Declared on May 15, the outbreak is the 17th in Congo's history, though genetic sequencing shows the virus had likely been spreading undetected since February. Uganda reported 20 cases, all in the capital, Kampala, with no confirmed spread within the community, and authorities there declared the outbreak over last month after limiting deaths to two.