Congo's ongoing Ebola outbreak will soon surpass the deadliest one in history, which killed over 11,000 people out of more than 28,000 cases.
"At its current pace, it's on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
As per official records, the outbreak has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases so far. Unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks, the ongoing one is challenging because the rare Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccines or treatments. Researchers are working to develop a vaccine.
"The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us and we're playing catch-up," Tedros said.
According to PTI, most of the new cases and deaths are still being reported in communities outside the reach of health workers in a region of poor infrastructure and ill-equipped health centres.
Meanwhile, the outbreak has now spread to a sixth province, after a death was recorded in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya informed. The infected person had travelled from Isiro in Haut-Uele province to Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, where the person died.
(With agency inputs)
