The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 2,325 people, government data showed on Sunday, surpassing the toll from the 2018-2020 outbreak to become the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history.
Congo’s public health institute said in its latest report that confirmed cases had risen to 4,945, including 101 new cases detected in the previous 24 hours. The outbreak is the country’s 17th and had already become its largest in terms of confirmed cases, reaching that milestone in late July.
The latest death toll has now exceeded the 2,299 deaths recorded during Congo’s 2018-2020 outbreak, which had previously been the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record. The current outbreak has therefore surpassed that earlier toll less than three months after it was formally declared.
The scale of the outbreak is second only to the Ebola epidemic that struck West Africa between 2014 and 2016. According to the World Health Organization, that outbreak recorded 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The pace at which deaths have accumulated in Congo has also been striking. It took nearly five months from the declaration of the West African outbreak to reach 1,000 deaths, while Congo’s current outbreak reached 2,000 deaths in less than three months.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Since the outbreak was declared on May 15, it has gained momentum as weak health infrastructure, community resistance and instability have hindered efforts to identify cases and mount an effective response.
Government data shows that the proportion of people dying after a confirmed infection, known as the case fatality ratio, has increased sharply. The ratio rose from about 20% in early June to 46%, meaning that nearly one in every two confirmed cases is now fatal.
Experts caution that the increase does not mean the virus itself has become more lethal. Instead, they say it reflects continuing shortcomings in surveillance, case detection and access to medical care.
“Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier,” said Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist recently deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Medecins Sans Frontieres.
“Instead, we’re still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community.”
A small number of experimental vaccines and therapies are being evaluated, while global health authorities assess whether existing Ebola treatments could provide protection. Evidence so far is limited to animal studies, leaving the response heavily dependent on identifying infections and providing care as early as possible.
The outbreak also spread earlier to neighbouring Uganda, where authorities managed to limit deaths to two and confirmed cases to 20 before declaring an end to the outbreak in that country last month.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, whether living or dead. It can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
With confirmed infections continuing to rise and the death toll already exceeding that of Congo’s previous worst outbreak, the latest figures highlight the scale of the challenge facing health authorities as they attempt to contain the country’s deadliest Ebola outbreak on record.
