Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the latest outbreak, which is nearing the country’s deadliest ever.
The current outbreak, which has hit the DRC’s conflict-plagued eastern and northeastern regions, was declared on May 15 but is thought to have already been spreading for several weeks.
It is the DRC’s 17th surge of the highly contagious disease and is already considered the largest in the country’s history “and could well become the largest outbreak ever,” Sania Nishtar, chief executive of the Gavi global vaccine alliance, has said.
According to figures released on Tuesday by Congolese health authorities, 2,011 people have died in the latest outbreak, out of 4,381 confirmed cases of the virus.
The latest toll puts it close behind the DRC’s deadliest Ebola outbreak in 2018 to 2020 when nearly 2,300 people died out of 3,500 recorded cases.
