Health officials warn the outbreak remains in sustained transmission despite no further geographic spread.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak has claimed 1,801 lives and infected 3,973 people, authorities said Thursday, as health officials warned that the epidemic remains in a phase of sustained transmission with the virus continuing to circulate at a high level.RELATED: DRC Ebola Outbreak Leaves Over 1,600 Dead, W.H.O. Maintains Global Alert
According to the latest government bulletin, based on data collected through Aug. 4, the outbreak has a case fatality rate of 45.3%.
Health authorities said 674 patients are currently in isolation or hospitalized, while 776 people have recovered from the disease. Contact tracing has reached 75.3%, according to official figures.
The outbreak, declared on May 15, has spread across five provinces: Ituri, the epicenter of the epidemic, as well as North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé and Tshopo.
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Although no new areas reported infections during the 24-hour period covered by the latest update, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Institute of Public Health said the epidemic remains in a phase of “sustained transmission,” with a high level of virus circulation.
Last Friday, the current outbreak became the second-largest Ebola epidemic on record by confirmed infections and the largest ever recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, surpassing the 2018-2020 outbreak in the country’s east, which caused 2,299 deaths and 3,481 confirmed cases.
It is the country’s 17th Ebola outbreak and has recorded the fastest growth in infections of any Ebola epidemic since its declaration, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus also spread to neighboring Uganda, which declared itself Ebola-free on July 28 after confirming 20 cases, including 15 imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Two people died during Uganda’s outbreak.
The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which has a fatality rate of between 30% and 50% and has no authorized vaccine or specific treatment, according to the World Health Organization.
Despite its rapid spread, the current outbreak remains well below the scale of the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the deadliest on record, which caused about 11,000 deaths and 28,000 infections.
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