The Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo became the deadliest in its history, with the virus “killing someone every 30 minutes,” a UN official said.
The current outbreak is spreading five times faster than previous ones: It took only three months for fatalities to hit 2,000, compared to the five months it took to reach 1,000 deaths during the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak. Researchers believe the virus may have been spreading undetected since February, and an expert said cases were still being detected very late, thwarting chances of successful treatment.
Violence in the conflict-affected region likely hampered detection efforts; research suggests countries “may be least able to spot outbreaks in precisely the places where the danger is greatest.”
