The death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen above 1,400, with the number of confirmed and suspected infections reaching 3,200 since the emergency was declared in mid-May, the Health Ministry said on Monday.
Official figures showed that 1,405 people had died during the country’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak.
As of July 25, 773 patients remained in hospitals or isolation facilities, while 571 people had recovered, according to the ministry.
The outbreak has spread across five provinces: Haut-Uele, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo.
Health officials said surveillance, laboratory testing, treatment, contact tracing and other containment operations were continuing in an effort to curb further transmission.
The current outbreak is approaching the scale of the country’s largest recorded Ebola epidemic, which affected North Kivu and Ituri between August 2018 and June 2020.
That outbreak resulted in 3,470 cases and 2,287 deaths, according to official figures. The current caseload is now just 270 cases below that total.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said on Saturday that urgent measures had been agreed with Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa to strengthen the response, protect frontline health workers and address major operational shortages.
Kaseya last week renewed calls for African governments and international partners to raise at least $1.4 billion to support the wider Ebola response across the continent.
Speaking during an African Union Assembly session in Accra, he said the estimated response budget had increased from an initial $518 million as the outbreak continued to worsen.