NAIROBI, Aug 11 (Bernama-dpa) -- The number of Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has risen to 2,011, the government reported on Tuesday, just under three months after the outbreak was officially announced, with the virus killing 45.9 per cent of those infected, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
A total of 4,381 people contracted Ebola during this period, with 704 currently being treated in isolation units. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with bodily fluids, and causes a highly infectious fever with diarrhoea and bleeding.
Jean Kaseya, director of the African health agency Africa CDC, said recently that the number of cases and deaths during the first 12 weeks of the outbreak was respectively eight times and more than six times as high as during the same period in the worst outbreak in West Africa to date, from 2014 to 2016.
For the Congo, the worst Ebola outbreak to date was from 2018 to 2020, when 3,400 contracted the virus, fewer than the more than 4,000 infected with Ebola in just 12 weeks.
The current outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain is proving highly problematic, as there is neither a specific vaccine nor specific treatment. Clinical trials of two antiviral treatment methods have been ongoing since early July. Given the severity of the outbreak, authorities also want to determine whether the pathogen may have mutated.
There is concern that 86 per cent of new Ebola cases currently cannot be traced back to contacts of confirmed cases.
"We believe that more and more cases are going unreported," Kaseya said. Successfully containing the outbreak requires tracing 95 per cent of contacts, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The outbreak is centred in regions where security is poor and internally displaced people are living in cramped conditions. Much of the region is controlled by rebels.
-- BERNAMA-dpa