The second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in modern history has exceeded 600 confirmed cases over the last five months, health officials said.
Since the outbreak first hit the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Aug. 1, 649 stricken people have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever in two of the central African’s northeastern provinces. Among those cases, 600 have tested positive for Ebola virus, which causes an often-lethal type hemorrhagic fever, according to the country’s health ministry.
The growing outbreak is killing about 61% of those stricken. There have been 396 deaths, including 347 people dead from confirmed Ebola cases. The 49 other fatalities are from probable cases, said the ministry.
Ordinarily, the virus kills half of all Ebola patients, though case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization.
The ongoing outbreak is one of the world’s worst, second only to the 2014-16 outbreak in multiple West African countries that infected more than 28,000 people and claimed 11,325, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is the largest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo and the most severe since 1976, when scientists first identified the virus in the proximity of the Ebola River, reported ABC News.
Ebola virus disease, which has a long incubation period of about eight to 21 days, is transmitted through contact with blood or secretions from an infected person.
