Ebola outbreak kills more than 5,300 people – Africa CDC

Africa’s latest Ebola outbreak has killed more than 5,300 people, the vast majority of them in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the continent’s top health agency. In mid-May, the DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak, a deadly disease transmitted through contact with bodily fluids that causes haemorrhagic fever and has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

According to data shared with AFP by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Monday, the outbreak, which has spread to other countries on the continent, has killed 5,376 people — 5,372 in the DRC and two each in Kenya and Uganda. A total of 10,444 cases have been confirmed, with a fatality rate of more than 50 percent.

The virus has crossed borders several times in recent months. Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 cases, almost all involving people who had travelled from the DRC, before being declared Ebola-free in August. In October, Kenya recorded nine infections, marking the first time the country had reported an Ebola case. That same month, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, reported an Ebola case involving a 42-year-old Swiss woman whose husband works at the Swiss embassy in Abuja.

The couple had travelled to Uganda before returning to Nigeria. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccine or treatment is currently available. In recent weeks, clinical trials have begun with the Ervebo vaccine, which has proved effective against the more common Zaire strain of the virus.