African health authorities confirmed Wednesday they had documented 1,031 deaths linked to the ongoing outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over two months after the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) declared a public health emergency. The country first began experiencing a surge in the number of Ebola cases in its restive eastern Ituri and North Kivu provinces in the first half of the year. W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested that the outbreak may have begun as early as in January of this year while addressing the situation in June; his agency declared an outbreak of high concern in the DRC in May.
The Ebola outbreak is widely considered among the most serious documented in history, exacerbated by the challenging conditions in eastern DRC – an area marred by extreme violence as warring militias vie for control of illicit mining industries and displace thousands in the process. Local communities have also resisted aid from the international community, many of them denying the existence of Ebola and attacking health workers or escaping quarantine, making treatment and containment difficult. Furthermore, the strain of Ebola spreading in Ituri and North Kivu, Bundibugyo, was previously a less common form of the virus and no treatment, vaccine, or other medical intervention currently exists to address it. DRC authorities revealed on Wednesday that they had documented 2,473 cases of Ebola Bundibugyo in the country as of that day believed to be linked to the outbreak. Among those, 999 patients have died, resulting in a death rate of about 40 percent that may be somewhat lower taking into consideration Ebola patients who have yet to be identified. Later that day, Jean Kaseya the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC), updated that death toll to over 1,000.
