Congo Ebola deaths pass 5,000 as outbreak spreads further

More than 5,000 people have now died from Ebola in Congo. That single number makes this the second deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

If you follow global health news, or you have colleagues, family or business ties anywhere in Central Africa, this is a story worth understanding properly, not just skimming the headline. The numbers are getting worse, and health officials say they still don’t fully understand how the virus is spreading in so many new cases.

According to the latest data from Congo’s Ministry of Health, released on Saturday, 5,026 people have died out of 10,351 confirmed infections. That works out to a death rate of nearly 50%, meaning roughly one in every two people infected has died. It’s a sobering update, and one that puts this outbreak behind only the West Africa Ebola crisis of 2014 to 2016, which killed around 11,000 people across several countries over two years.

What exactly is happening in Congo?

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola that was declared in mid-May this year. It caught Congolese health authorities off guard, and they have been struggling to manage it ever since.

There is currently no known vaccine or treatment for this particular strain. Health workers can only treat patients based on their symptoms as they appear, rather than targeting the virus directly. That makes early detection and isolation the main tools available to stop it spreading further.

Since May, the virus has reached 67 of Congo’s 178 health zones, spread across 8 of the country’s 26 provinces. Of those 67 affected zones, 50 still have active cases. The outbreak is heavily concentrated in the eastern region of the country, particularly in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, which together account for 9,782 confirmed cases and 4,792 deaths. That’s the vast majority of the entire outbreak sitting in just two provinces.

So far, 2,788 people have recovered from the virus, which does show that survival is possible with the right care reaching people in time.

Why is it so hard to stop?

This is really the heart of the problem. According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 80% of new cases are appearing outside the chain of contacts that health authorities are already monitoring. In plain terms, most new infections are coming from people nobody knew were at risk, which makes it extremely difficult for health teams to get ahead of the virus.

Dr Patrick Otim, a programme area manager with the World Health Organization, called the 5,000 death toll