The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the second largest ever recorded, with more than 3,530 confirmed infections since the epidemic was declared in mid-May, health authorities said on Friday.
The Health Ministry said confirmed cases had risen to 3,532, overtaking the approximately 3,470 infections registered during DR Congo’s 10th Ebola outbreak between August 2018 and June 2020.
At least 1,556 people have died, putting the case fatality rate at 44.1%. Another 807 patients remain in hospitals or isolation centres, while 626 people have recovered.
The current outbreak is now second only to the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic, which affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and resulted in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Cases have been reported in five provinces: Haut-Uele, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo.
Ituri remains the epicentre of the outbreak, where health authorities say transmission of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus strain remains widespread.
Unlike the Zaire strain of Ebola, there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said on Thursday that it had partnered with Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories to speed up the development and production of an experimental vaccine targeting the strain.
CEPI will provide up to $8.5 million to support development of the vaccine and manufacture doses for clinical trials.
The candidate uses the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus platform, the same technology used in an approved vaccine against the Zaire Ebola strain.
“With Bundibugyo virus cases rising at worrying speed, the epidemic is fast becoming a humanitarian crisis,” CEPI chief executive Richard Hatchett said.