The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has surpassed the previous largest outbreak of 2018-2020. Health officials are reporting a crisis in the response system: over the weekend, the number of victims of the virus exceeded 2,300, according to infohub.kz.
According to the latest government data from the DRC, 5,021 cases have been recorded in the country so far. The death toll has already reached 2,378.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that despite the rapid spread of the virus, the outbreak in the DRC can still be brought under control.
"The situation is quite complex, but people are working here day and night trying to bring this outbreak under control. As for the plan for the next three months, yes, if all the necessary resources are available, I think it is possible to bring the situation under control," WHO's incident manager in the Congo, Thierno Balde, told reporters in Geneva.
In turn, the head of emergency preparedness at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wessam Mankoula, did not give the press much hope, saying that there is still a lot of work ahead.
"We are still far from assessing the scale of this outbreak, as up to 80% of new cases have no known link to those already infected. This means that the virus is still spreading uncontrollably in many regions. So this will definitely not end in a few months," he stressed.
It is worth recalling that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo became known in mid-May, when a state of emergency was declared in the country. The cause is a rare strain called Bundibugyo.