Congo’s Ebola outbreak has spread to a sixth province after a man died in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
The man died in Buta, the provincial capital, after traveling there from Isiro in neighboring Haut-Uele province, said Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, said the man was a motorcycle-taxi driver who sought treatment at several hospitals before his death. Afterward, some of his colleagues attempted to take his body by force, prompting police to intervene and raising concerns that others may have been exposed to the virus, Muyembe said.
The outbreak in eastern Congo is considered the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record and is on pace to surpass the deadliest outbreak in history, which struck West Africa between 2014 and 2016 and killed more than 11,000 people, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
