The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the deadliest recorded in the country, with 2,325 people killed since authorities declared the epidemic in May.

Government figures released on Sunday put the number of confirmed infections at 4,945. Health authorities recorded 101 new cases during the previous 24 hours.

The death toll has passed the 2,299 deaths recorded during Congo’s 2018-2020 epidemic, which previously held the national record.

The current outbreak, Congo’s 17th, had already become the country’s largest by confirmed cases in late July.

The epidemic has reached that point three months after authorities declared the outbreak on 15 May.

The outbreak has spread across six of Congo’s 26 provinces. More than 3,400 cases have been recorded in Ituri province, where authorities first reported the outbreak.

The United Nations has warned that the response is failing to keep pace with transmission.

“Ebola is winning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We cannot let the virus outrun our response,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement on Friday.

Fletcher called for “speed, scale, and solidarity” in efforts to contain the epidemic. The UN said the disease was killing one person about every 30 minutes.

Only the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic has recorded more cases and deaths. That outbreak produced 28,616 cases and killed 11,310 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

The pace of the Congo outbreak has raised concern among international health agencies. During the West African epidemic, the death toll took almost five months to reach 1,000. Congo’s current outbreak passed 2,000 deaths in less than three months, Reuters reported.

The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus. No approved vaccine or treatment exists for this species. Researchers are assessing experimental vaccines and therapies, while health authorities are studying whether treatments developed for other forms of Ebola offer protection. 

The case fatality ratio has also risen. Government data puts the rate at about 46%, compared with around 20% in early June. The figures mean close to half of confirmed patients have died.

Health specialists link the increase to late detection rather than evidence that the virus has become more lethal.

“Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier,” Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist deployed to Congo with Médecins Sans Frontières, said.

“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.”

Health workers face weak infrastructure, resistance in some communities and conflict in parts of eastern Congo. Those conditions have complicated surveillance, contact tracing and access to patients.

The outbreak also crossed into neighbouring Uganda. Authorities there confirmed 20 cases and two deaths before declaring the outbreak over last month.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with blood and other bodily fluids from infected people, including people who have died. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Severe infections also cause internal and external bleeding.

HT