The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has surpassed 4,000 confirmed cases for the first time, underscoring the scale of the country's worst-ever epidemic and one of the deadliest public health emergencies in recent history.
Government data released Thursday showed 4,053 confirmed infections and 1,850 deaths since the outbreak was officially declared on May 15.
Health authorities also reported about 793 recoveries, while nearly 700 patients remained hospitalized or in isolation as response teams continued battling the virus.
The epidemic has become the world's second-largest Ebola outbreak on record and the largest ever recorded in Congo, where the virus was first identified in 1976. It has also been described by health experts as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak ever documented.
Only the devastating 2014-16 West African epidemic, which infected more than 28,000 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, has recorded a higher number of cases.
