Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo tops 1,500 deaths as cases surge

Official government data released Thursday put eastern Congo's Ebola outbreak at 3,442 cases and 1,521 deaths as of Tuesday, a rise of about 50% in roughly a week. Health teams used isolation, tracing contacts and safe burials.

The outbreak was declared on May 15 and has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. It has been centered in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, with Bunia, Beni, Butembo, Mabalako, Katwa and Mandima among the hardest-hit areas.

The World Health Organization calls the crisis in eastern Congo the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, behind West Africa's 2013-2016 epidemic, and the largest in Congo's history. The broader eastern Congo epidemic began in August 2018 in the northeast, where repeated violence, mistrust of responders, weak surveillance and overcrowded treatment centers undercut efforts to stop spread.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids and carries an average fatality rate of around 50 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In eastern Congo, funding shortfalls and instability repeatedly kept health workers behind the virus.