The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has risen to 4,018, with 8,300 confirmed cases recorded across seven provinces.
Reuters, a NAN partner, reported on Friday that the figures were contained in data released by the Congolese government as health authorities intensify efforts to contain the outbreak.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, is the largest and deadliest recorded in the DRC, surpassing the outbreaks recorded between 2018 and 2020.
According to government figures, more than 2,000 patients have recovered from the disease.
The outbreak is currently the second-deadliest Ebola epidemic on record, after the 2014–2016 West African outbreak, which recorded more than 28,600 infections and over 11,000 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Congolese government and the United Nations said last month that transmission had begun to slow in parts of Ituri Province, where the outbreak originated.
However, the latest government data showed that the virus continued to spread rapidly in eastern DRC, including neighboring North Kivu Province.
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South Ubangi Province in north-western DRC became the seventh affected province last month after a man who had traveled from eastern DRC died from the virus.
The rising figures highlight the challenges confronting health authorities as they intensify efforts to contain the outbreak across the affected provinces.
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