The Ebola outbreak ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 600 people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday, just three days after the death toll crossed 500.
The UN health agency’s updated figures showed 1,759 confirmed cases recorded in DR Congo since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, including the 600 confirmed deaths.
Two additional deaths have been recorded in neighbouring Uganda, where 17 of 20 confirmed patients have recovered.
WHO figures, sourced from DRC health authorities, put the outbreak’s case fatality rate at 34 percent. So far, 285 patients in the country have recovered, while 304 suspected cases remain under investigation.
The outbreak, concentrated in Ituri province in the country’s northeast, has spread across four provinces. It is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no vaccines or treatments have been approved.
A clinical trial testing two potential treatments — the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir, both alone and in combination — began in the DRC on July 2.
Ebola spreads through close contact with infected persons or their bodily fluids. The DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 following a cluster of deaths in Ituri, a mineral-rich province long troubled by armed group activity.
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