A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official told a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had the highest number of confirmed cases in its first month of any Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Officials have confirmed as of Monday more than 1,000 cases and 267 deaths from the current outbreak of the comparatively rare Bundibugyo ebolavirus.
"This is the largest number of confirmed cases in the first month of an Ebola disease outbreak in Africa," said the WHO's director of health emergency alert and response operations, Abdirahman Mahamud, in a press release.
The WHO formally confirmed the outbreak on May 15, but experts believe it had been likely circulating for weeks or months prior to that.
Dozens of cases confirmed at eastern Congo displacement camps
