Ebola outbreak latest: Death toll hits 268 as Congo ravaged by killer disease

THE Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 250 lives, according to health ministry data released on Wednesday.

Ebola outbreak: 19 die within five days in eastern Congo

The current outbreak began in July and is the 10th to hit the country since 1976, and the second this year. But militia violence has hampered efforts to contain the deadly disease. The number of confirmed deaths from the hemorrhagic fever jumped from 260 to 268 in just one day after eight new cases were confirmed earlier on Wednesday. Three of the deaths were recorded in Komanda, a previously untouched town some 100km north of Beni, the epicentre of the current outbreak, health officials said, sparking fears the disease is spiralling out of control.

In total, 453 cases have been recorded by Congolese health authorities, of which 405 were confirmed and 48 were probable, since the start of the outbreak at the beginning of August. 

However, some 144 confirmed cases have recovered and been discharged from Ebola Treatment Centres, the World Health Organisation said in a statement. 

Two health workers were among the new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of health workers infected to 44, including 12 deaths. 

Women account for 59 per cent of all confirmed and probable cases.

The WHO said last week that the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is the second-biggest ever recorded. 

The epidemic, which has hit one of most volatile parts of the country, is now only surpassed by the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, where more than 28,000 cases were confirmed.

It is bigger than an outbreak in Uganda in 2000, where 425 cases were confirmed. 

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A health worker carries a four-day-old baby suspected of having Ebola (Image: JOHN WESSELS/AFP/Getty Images)

We remain confident that the outbreak can be contained, despite ongoing challenges

WHO

The WHO said: “We remain confident that the outbreak can be contained, despite ongoing challenges. 

But Michelle Gayer, senior director of emergency health at the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement last week that the “tragic milestone clearly demonstrates the complexity and severity of the outbreak”. 

“The dynamics of conflict (mean) ... a protracted outbreak is ... likely, and the end is not in sight,” she warned. 

DR Congo has suffered 10 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first discovered there in 1976 –this is the second outbreak this year alone.

The previous outbreak, in the west of the country, killed 33 people, according to the government.

The densely populated provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, where the majority of cases have been reported, have been the hotbeds of armed rebellion and sectarian killings since two civil wars in the late 1990s.

The intense insecurity there, namely attacks by armed rebel groups and community resistance to health officials, has hindered the implementation of efforts to contain the outbreak, health authorities have warned. 

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The WHO said last week that the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is the second-biggest ever recorded (Image: JOHN WESSELS/AFP/Getty Images)

A deadly rebel attack in September forced health workers to halt vaccinations and the tracing of people who have been in contact with suspected Ebola patients.

However, since a vaccination programme began on August 8, more than 20,000 people have been inoculated, the health ministry said.

On Monday the ministry stressed that health workers hoped that the first multi-drug Ebola treatment trial would help to contain the current and future outbreaks.

Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats and can turn up in bush meat sold at food markets throughout Congo. 

It spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding, and in many flare-ups, more than half of cases are fatal.

People who treat and bury the bodies of the dead are especially at risk, as corpses are even more contagious than living Ebola patients, hence the need for safe burials. 

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